WASHINGTON -- Sensata Technologies is a healthy manufacturing company that employs nearly 200 workers at a factory in northern Illinois. The company has become the focus of national attention because it has been taken over by Bain Capital, which plans to shut the factory down, lay off the workers, and outsource the production to China before the end of the year.
The workers have pleaded with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the founder of Bain Capital, to exert his considerable influence to save their jobs. Romney still makes millions each year in income from Bain. So far, he has declined to weigh in, and the factory is scheduled to close by the end of the year.
While the workers and the town may suffer, Romney himself has done well as a result of Bain's work with the company. According to his recently released 2011 tax returns, Romney transferred $701,703 worth of Sensata stock to the Tyler Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit controlled by Romney. The gift is listed on page 323 of the pdf, on form 8283 (below).
Moving the stock to his nonprofit brings Romney twin benefits. First, he gets to deduct the full value of the stock. At a 35 percent tax rate, that's nearly a $250,000 benefit. At 15 percent, it's just over $100,000.
Second, Romney is able to avoid paying capital gains taxes on the stock price increase. Romney's returns list no cost for the stock, and indicate he obtained them as part of a partnership interest in Bain. Avoiding capital gains taxes on the full increase would save an additional $100,000. In 2010, Romney gifted $170,000 worth of Sensata stock to his charity, saving $25,000 in capital gains taxes that year.
Cheryl Randecker, a Sensata worker facing an imminent layoff, said, "I could pay off my house with that [$25,000], and he doesn't need it anyway."
Randecker received her 60-day layoff notice shortly after Labor Day. She and other Sensata employees have tried in vain to pressure Romney and Bain to keep their jobs in the U.S., going so far as to create a "Bainport" encampment across the street from their plant in Freeport, Ill. Billed as the "home of the Romney economy," the site highlights what some Sensata workers describe as corporate greed squeezing the middle class.
"Knowing ... that he's going to profit single-handedly from us losing our jobs here in Freeport is very disturbing," Randecker, a single mother, said. On the subject of Romney's capital gains savings, Randecker continued, "It's very bothersome that he doesn’t pay his fair share of taxes. If he and the rest of the one percent did, we probably wouldn’t be in a deficit here ... The lower and middle class keep getting stepped on."
Rebecca Wilkins, an attorney with Citizens for Tax Justice, said that Romney's move is a prime example of the way that the super-wealthy are able to game the charitable deduction while still holding on to their money.
"During the last crazy weeks of each year, in the middle of the holiday and year-end rush, most of us sit down and write a few checks to our favorite charities. We want to support their work and we appreciate the related tax deduction," Wilkins said. "But higher-income taxpayers can use special arrangements, like charitable trusts and private foundations, to get big deductions now for amounts that won’t go to charities for many years to come -- often not until the taxpayer dies. They can also give gifts of property, like stock, that have gone up in value. They get a deduction for the full fair market value of the stock, but never have to pay the capital gains tax on the appreciation."
The Romney campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Andrea Saul, a campaign spokeswoman, previously told HuffPost that the candidate "donates a substantial amount of money every year to charity. He receives the same charitable deduction for his private giving as does any other American."
In the end, Romney didn't even need the extra tax benefit he got from transferring the Sensata stock. When Romney released his most recent returns, his trustee explained that he declined to take roughly $2 million in charitable deductions for contributions for which he was eligible. He declined the deductions so that his tax rate wouldn't dip below 13 percent -- a marker he had set earlier when he said that there was no year he'd paid a rate lower than that.
If Romney amends his tax return after the election, he will be eligible to recoup the difference.
Romney also transferred nearly $220,000 worth of stock in Dunkin Donuts, another Bain investment, according to his returns.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/27/mitt-romney-sensata-tax-break_n_1920396.html
The Truth-O-Meter Says:
Says Obama sent $450 million to China to build a wind farm in Texas.
Americans For Tax Reform on Friday, September 21st, 2012 in a mailer to votersAnti-tax group says Obama sent $450 million to China to build Texas wind farm
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In the battleground state of Florida, critics of President Obama have
accused him not simply of spending billions in stimulus money to no good
effect but actually using that money to give a leg up to America’s
economic rivals. Americans for Tax Reform has revived an old charge that
Obama sent $450 million to create jobs in China.
Americans for Tax Reform -- an anti-tax group whose founder, Grover Norquist, is famous for arguing for a government so small it could be drowned in a bathtub -- mailed a flyer to Florida voters that showed a stack of hundred dollar bills being blown in a graceful arc across the globe to land in a very red China. On the reverse side, it said "Obama's massive spending includes giving millions to a Chinese company to build a wind farm in Texas. The Chinese company is expected to receive $450 million in U.S. taxpayer money. More jobs in China .. fewer jobs here."
We’ve looked at this sort of claim before and in this fact check, we examine whether Obama sent $450 million to China to build a wind farm in Texas.
Promoting alternative energy under the stimulus
Americans for Tax Reform told us it based this claim on an ABC News report from 2010. In that story, ABC pointed out that the bulk of the stimulus dollars spent on wind and solar projects went to foreign companies.
With the twin goals of diversifying the country’s energy supply and boosting a domestic alternative energy industry, the Obama administration used the stimulus to expand a program that awarded tax credits for wind and solar projects once they came online and produced power.
The tax credits were handed out as grants that could cover up to 30 percent of the construction costs. We checked on the latest numbers and found that as of 2011, some $9.8 billion went to fund over 300 wind farms around the country.
The ABC report relied heavily on the work of Russ Choma, who at the time was a journalist with the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a project at American University. Choma noted that foreign companies received over 60 percent of the alternative energy grants. As we’ll explain in a moment, that does not tell us how much of that money went overseas.
Right now, our main focus is that wind farm in Texas built with Chinese towers and turbines. The ABC report spoke of it this way, "Perhaps the most controversial wind project is one that has yet to receive stimulus money." It then goes on to say that a reporter visited the vacant offices of the Chinese firm that allegedly was providing the turbines.
So Americans for Tax Reform relied on an article that said the project had not been funded and gave some evidence that hinted strongly that the project was not very active.
In fact, by late 2010, it was clear that this particular Texas wind farm had never gone beyond the idea stage. In 2012, Liz Salerno, director of industry data and analysis for the trade group American Wind Energy Association, confirmed that. Salerno tracks wind projects across the country.
"The companies held a press conference at the National Press Club in 2010," Salerno said. "They have made no progress since that announcement."
PolitiFact Ohio wrote a piece making the same point in 2012.
Let’s return briefly to the question of whether stimulus dollars have benefited foreign companies. The short answer is, yes but how much is unclear. Choma, the investigative reporter, noted that the larger overseas firms have American plants that make the blades and other components that were used in U.S. wind farms. Choma wrote that tracking the dollars would be a massive undertaking.
"I can't say how many of the turbines built by American manufacturers were overseas, and how many of the turbines built by foreign manufacturers were built here," Choma said.
To choose just one example, a wind farm in Alaska has a distinct multi-national flavor. The turbines come from GE, the blades from Brazil, the generators come from Southern California, the central hubs from the Florida Panhandle and the towers from China.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory reported that the grant program added between 44,000 to 66,000 jobs in the wind energy sector each year from 2009 to 2011. Employment peaked in 2009 when new construction was at its height. It has since fallen and the wind power industry is poised for further declines if government tax credits are not renewed beyond 2013.
Our ruling
The Americans for Tax Reform flyer said that Obama sent $450 million to China to build a wind farm in Texas.
The wind farm was never built, the project sponsors never applied for government funds and never received any.
These facts have been well known for at least two years and were publicly reported several times. The source cited by Americans for Tax Reform noted that the project had not been funded.
The flyer spreads a discredited claim. We rate the statement Pants on Fire.
Subjects: China, Jobs, Message Machine 2012, Stimulus
Sources:
Americans for Tax Reform, Florida mailer, September 2012
PolitiFact, Romney says stimulus money for wind and solar was "outsourced" to overseas companies, July 20, 2012
Email interview, John Kartch, communications director, Americans for Tax Reform, September 24, 2012
ABC News, New Wind Farms In The U.S. Do Not Bring Jobs, February 9, 2010
Reuters, U.S. Renewable Energy Group, China’s Shenyang Power Group, and Cielo Wind Power to Develop a 600MW Wind Farm in Texas, October 29, 2009
Greenwire, DOE disputes senators' claims of stimulus grants flowing overseas, March 4, 2010
PolitiFact-Ohio, Josh Mandel says Sherrod Brown is responsible for Ohio jobs moving to China, March 1, 2012
IRS, 1603 Program payments
FactCheck.org, Stimulus Jobs In China?, October 29, 2010
PolitiFact, Stimulus went to windmills in China? Romney ad says so, July 23, 2012
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Preliminary Analysis of the Jobs and Economic Impacts of Renewable Energy Projects Supported by the 1603 Treasury Grant Program, April 2012
Investigative Reporting Workshop, Renewable Energy money still going abroad, February 8, 2010
Investigative Reporting Workshop, Workshop's Wind Stories Kicking Up Political Dust, September 27, 2010
Anchorage Daily News, Turbines Rising at Fire Island, Wind Farm July 19, 2012
Interview with Liz Salerno, director of industry data and analysis, American Wind Energy Association, July 2012
Congressional Research Service, U.S. Wind Turbine Manufacturing: Federal Support for an Emerging Industry, September 23, 2011
Written by: Jon Greenberg
Researched by: Jon Greenberg
Edited by: Bill Adair
Americans for Tax Reform -- an anti-tax group whose founder, Grover Norquist, is famous for arguing for a government so small it could be drowned in a bathtub -- mailed a flyer to Florida voters that showed a stack of hundred dollar bills being blown in a graceful arc across the globe to land in a very red China. On the reverse side, it said "Obama's massive spending includes giving millions to a Chinese company to build a wind farm in Texas. The Chinese company is expected to receive $450 million in U.S. taxpayer money. More jobs in China .. fewer jobs here."
We’ve looked at this sort of claim before and in this fact check, we examine whether Obama sent $450 million to China to build a wind farm in Texas.
Promoting alternative energy under the stimulus
Americans for Tax Reform told us it based this claim on an ABC News report from 2010. In that story, ABC pointed out that the bulk of the stimulus dollars spent on wind and solar projects went to foreign companies.
With the twin goals of diversifying the country’s energy supply and boosting a domestic alternative energy industry, the Obama administration used the stimulus to expand a program that awarded tax credits for wind and solar projects once they came online and produced power.
The tax credits were handed out as grants that could cover up to 30 percent of the construction costs. We checked on the latest numbers and found that as of 2011, some $9.8 billion went to fund over 300 wind farms around the country.
The ABC report relied heavily on the work of Russ Choma, who at the time was a journalist with the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a project at American University. Choma noted that foreign companies received over 60 percent of the alternative energy grants. As we’ll explain in a moment, that does not tell us how much of that money went overseas.
Right now, our main focus is that wind farm in Texas built with Chinese towers and turbines. The ABC report spoke of it this way, "Perhaps the most controversial wind project is one that has yet to receive stimulus money." It then goes on to say that a reporter visited the vacant offices of the Chinese firm that allegedly was providing the turbines.
So Americans for Tax Reform relied on an article that said the project had not been funded and gave some evidence that hinted strongly that the project was not very active.
In fact, by late 2010, it was clear that this particular Texas wind farm had never gone beyond the idea stage. In 2012, Liz Salerno, director of industry data and analysis for the trade group American Wind Energy Association, confirmed that. Salerno tracks wind projects across the country.
"The companies held a press conference at the National Press Club in 2010," Salerno said. "They have made no progress since that announcement."
PolitiFact Ohio wrote a piece making the same point in 2012.
Let’s return briefly to the question of whether stimulus dollars have benefited foreign companies. The short answer is, yes but how much is unclear. Choma, the investigative reporter, noted that the larger overseas firms have American plants that make the blades and other components that were used in U.S. wind farms. Choma wrote that tracking the dollars would be a massive undertaking.
"I can't say how many of the turbines built by American manufacturers were overseas, and how many of the turbines built by foreign manufacturers were built here," Choma said.
To choose just one example, a wind farm in Alaska has a distinct multi-national flavor. The turbines come from GE, the blades from Brazil, the generators come from Southern California, the central hubs from the Florida Panhandle and the towers from China.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory reported that the grant program added between 44,000 to 66,000 jobs in the wind energy sector each year from 2009 to 2011. Employment peaked in 2009 when new construction was at its height. It has since fallen and the wind power industry is poised for further declines if government tax credits are not renewed beyond 2013.
Our ruling
The Americans for Tax Reform flyer said that Obama sent $450 million to China to build a wind farm in Texas.
The wind farm was never built, the project sponsors never applied for government funds and never received any.
These facts have been well known for at least two years and were publicly reported several times. The source cited by Americans for Tax Reform noted that the project had not been funded.
The flyer spreads a discredited claim. We rate the statement Pants on Fire.
About this statement:
Published: Tuesday, September 25th, 2012 at 5:02 p.m.Subjects: China, Jobs, Message Machine 2012, Stimulus
Sources:
Americans for Tax Reform, Florida mailer, September 2012
PolitiFact, Romney says stimulus money for wind and solar was "outsourced" to overseas companies, July 20, 2012
Email interview, John Kartch, communications director, Americans for Tax Reform, September 24, 2012
ABC News, New Wind Farms In The U.S. Do Not Bring Jobs, February 9, 2010
Reuters, U.S. Renewable Energy Group, China’s Shenyang Power Group, and Cielo Wind Power to Develop a 600MW Wind Farm in Texas, October 29, 2009
Greenwire, DOE disputes senators' claims of stimulus grants flowing overseas, March 4, 2010
PolitiFact-Ohio, Josh Mandel says Sherrod Brown is responsible for Ohio jobs moving to China, March 1, 2012
IRS, 1603 Program payments
FactCheck.org, Stimulus Jobs In China?, October 29, 2010
PolitiFact, Stimulus went to windmills in China? Romney ad says so, July 23, 2012
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Preliminary Analysis of the Jobs and Economic Impacts of Renewable Energy Projects Supported by the 1603 Treasury Grant Program, April 2012
Investigative Reporting Workshop, Renewable Energy money still going abroad, February 8, 2010
Investigative Reporting Workshop, Workshop's Wind Stories Kicking Up Political Dust, September 27, 2010
Anchorage Daily News, Turbines Rising at Fire Island, Wind Farm July 19, 2012
Interview with Liz Salerno, director of industry data and analysis, American Wind Energy Association, July 2012
Congressional Research Service, U.S. Wind Turbine Manufacturing: Federal Support for an Emerging Industry, September 23, 2011
Written by: Jon Greenberg
Researched by: Jon Greenberg
Edited by: Bill Adair
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