Category Archives: business news

business news, national news, political news

Trump wrecks his businesses, loses big dough; that’s ‘smart’

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I’m still trying to understand this one, so bear with me for just a moment.

The New York Times has uncovered information that reveals a big business loss for Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump. He declared a loss of about $916 million in 1995, caused by the wreckage of some business ventures.

The loss allowed Trump, according to the Times, to avoid paying federal income taxes for the next 18 years. The Trump campaign hasn’t confirmed or denied the veracity of the report.

So … is this a case of Trump gaming the federal tax system? Or is it smart business practice, as his supporters are now insisting?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Rudy Guiliani, one of Trump’s key advisers, defends the GOP nominee’s tax-paying record.

It’s a complicated story, full of economic nuance and wheeling/dealing with which I am patently unfamiliar. As the Times reported: “Although Mr. Trump’s taxable income in subsequent years is as yet unknown, a $916 million loss in 1995 would have been large enough to wipe out more than $50 million a year in taxable income over 18 years.”

It’s not yet clear, of course, whether Trump actually did avoid paying income taxes over the course of nearly two decades. My achy old bones tell me he probably took full advantage of tax law  to dodge the tax burden.

After all, he did tell Hillary Rodham Clinton during their first presidential debate this past week that it would be “smart” of him to avoid paying taxes.

OK, then. Let’s see those tax returns so we can determine for ourselves who’s telling the truth.

business news, national news, political news

Trading with the enemy: Trump steps on his own toes

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Reports that Donald J. Trump did business with the hated communists in Cuba seems aimed directly at one of the last curiosities of this presidential campaign.

The Republican nominee for president has been winning over those staunch GOP conservatives who just can’t cotton to the idea of letting the Cuban commies off the hook for their repression.

Yet now come these reports that Trump’s business enterprises traded with the Cubans long before the Obama administration decided to lift the decades-old economic embargo against the government run by Fidel Castro.

How does that play with the staunchly anti-communist Cuban-American community in, say, Florida … where Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton are fighting furiously for the state’s 29 electoral votes?

One would think it wouldn’t play well at all.

One would think …

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/report-that-donald-trump-did-business-in-cuba-ups-the-ante-in-florida/ar-BBwSAK9?li=BBnb7Kz

According to the New York Times: “The question of whether Mr. Trump sought business opportunities in Fidel Castro’s Cuba is explosive not only because of how loathed the Castro government is among Cuban-Americans in the Miami area, but also because Mr. Trump has taken such a hard line against the Obama administration’s policy of normalizing relations with the island nation.

“As far back as 1999, in public at least, Mr. Trump called efforts to restore relations with Cuba ‘pure lunacy.’”

Pure lunacy? Reports suggest, though, that Trump spent $68,000 on a business trip to Cuba to explore business opportunities.

Trump, quite naturally, denies that the trip had anything to do with business development. Sure thing, dude. He’s also denied a lot of things despite being seen and heard — on the record — saying the very things he denies saying.“

Will this enrage Florida’s still-potent Cuban-American political community enough to turn them against Trump?

“This adds to the long list of actions and statements that raise doubts about his temperament and qualification to be president and commander in chief,” Clinton said Thursday.

If it’s lunacy to trade with the Cuban commies, then only a lunatic would do so. Is that a correct assumption, Donald Trump?

business news, national news, political news

‘Smart’ to avoid paying taxes? OK, how do we fix what’s wrong?

tax-return-form

Thomas Friedman asks “How could we?” elect someone who says things he says.

The New York Times columnist, naturally, is referring to Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee who keeps spouting rhetoric that’s either ridiculous, false, ludicrous … or all of it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/opinion/trump-how-could-we.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Let me focus on one of the statements Trump has uttered that makes no sense at all.

Friedman writes: “How do we put in the Oval Office a man who boasts that he tries to pay zero federal taxes but then complains that our airports and roads are falling apart and there is not enough money for our veterans?”

Yes, Trump has bragged about how he uses tax laws to his benefit … even though he denies saying it. He denied saying it Monday night — when the entire nation heard him say it into a microphone that was working quite nicely.

So, does he suggest that while he works to avoid paying taxes that others are to foot the bill to fix all those infrastructure things he says are falling apart?

Veterans’ care? Who pays for that if Trump seeks to avoid shouldering the tax bill required to give veterans the health care they need?

Hmmm. Well, as a veteran myself, I believe I now shall express my personal disgust and revulsion at what Trump has said about whether he’s going to pay his fair share of taxes.

Is it smart? Well, I guess so if you’re just a rich guy. It’s pretty damn stupid, though, for someone who is running for president of the United States of America.

business news, local news, medical news

AEDC comes up with lucrative offer for Tech

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Amarillo voters approved an economic development corporation in 1989 for one purpose: to invest sales tax revenue in job-creation opportunities.

There have been a few misfires over the years. There also have been some spectacular successes. I hold up the Bell/Textron aircraft assembly operation as an example of success.

The AEDC has ponied up $15 million for Texas Tech University to build and operate a school of veterinary medicine in Amarillo.

Yes, this is a wise investment of sales tax revenue.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/09/20/amarillo-chips-15-million-texas-techs-vet-school-p/

As the Texas Tribune reports: “Not only is this a wonderful opportunity for students seeking careers in veterinary medicine, particularly in a region known as the livestock capital of the United States, it’s an investment in our community and economy,” said Mayor Paul Harpole.

Is this a done deal? No. Texas A&M University, which has the state’s only veterinary medicine school, has objected. For the life of me, I don’t understand the objection. The A&M System is going to lobby the Higher Education Coordinating Board to deny Tech’s request for a new school in Amarillo.

The Tribune also reports: “Texas has a severe shortage of rural veterinarians who are crucial to the foundations of our economy, the vibrancy of our communities and the safety of our food supply,” said Tech System Chancellor Robert Duncan. “There is no better place to transform the future of veterinary education and answer this call than in Amarillo.”

AEDC spends money it collects in its half-cent sales revenue stream. It’s a wise use of sales tax. Tech officials estimate the vet school would create about 100 well-paying jobs. It’s a bit difficult to calculate the return on investment that those jobs would bring.

The return could be huge.

The coordinating board reportedly has expressed some concern about whether another vet school for Texas is even necessary.

My question is this: When did increasing educational opportunities for students interested in pursuing a valuable profession become a bad thing?

business news, national news, political news

Tax returns, Trump, tax returns … release them!

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I am taking a bit of a leap here in challenging the New York Times on an editorial … with which I happen to agree.

The Times says Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump needs to release his tax returns. He needs to do what candidates of both parties have done since 1976. There’s no law requiring him to release the returns; it’s merely been customary for candidates to do so to reveal to the public just how they conduct their personal financial business.

Here’s the editorial. Take a look. The Times raises excellent points.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/21/opinion/mr-trumps-stupid-excuses-on-taxes.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

What the Times missed, though, is a simple point: It didn’t challenge Trump’s assertion that he’s being audited by the Internal Revenue Service.

The audit is the lame excuse he and his campaign team — mainly his sons — have used to keep the information from public information. The IRS, though, says an audit doesn’t preclude releasing the tax returns.

More to the point, though, is that Trump hasn’t even provided evidence that the IRS even is conducting an audit. He hasn’t given us any indication of a letter, or a notice, or a note tossed in over the transom alerting him of the audit.

He is asking us to take his word for it that the IRS is conducting an audit.

All of this is a shameful, disgraceful display of hypocrisy and duplicity from someone who for years demanded proof of President Obama’s place of birth and his academic records … not that any of it matters to those who have backed his candidacy.

OK, Donald Trump. The time has long passed for you to come clean and do what you have demanded of Barack Obama.

business news, national news, political news

Wealth an issue in this run for the White House

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One candidate for the U.S. presidency, the Republican, keeps harping on his “fabulous” wealth.

Donald J. Trump likes to boast about all the dough he has made in business, erecting tall buildings and getting his name slapped on the sides of them. It’s that boasting and braggadocio that make the release of his income tax returns a campaign issue … that and the questions about whether he’s paying his fair share of taxes and with which foreign governments he’s been doing business.

Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton, on the other hand, has said a number of other things about her wealth. She has claimed to have been “dead broke” when she and her husband exited the White House in January 2001.Then she said she isn’t “truly well off.”

https://highplainsblogger.com/2014/06/not-truly-well-off-mme-secretary/

She’s pretty damn “well off” now. Collecting six-figure speaking fees every time she or her husband, the former president, stands before a microphone adds up quickly.

Now, am I as concerned about her wealth as I am about Trump’s stubborn refusal to release his tax returns? Not at all.

Hillary and Bill Clinton have released their returns. The public has seen where and how they have acquired their wealth. They haven’t enriched themselves through the Clinton Foundation or the Clinton Global Initiative.

Yes, the “dead broke” statement was troubling. You know and I know she and her husband weren’t “dead broke” in the way many Americans understand the meaning of the term. Heck, they were able to secure financing to purchase a high-end home after they left the White House; lenders don’t dole out money to those who are “dead broke,” if you know what I mean.

However, her financial portfolio is an open book. Hillary Clinton’s role in the various works of the foundation and the CGI have been scrutinized to the nth degree.

Trump, on the other hand, remains a man of mystery regarding his supposedly vast holdings.

He keeps bragging about them. In public. For all to hear.

Inquiring minds want to know the truth behind the bluster.

business news, national news, political news

Trump’s wealth called into question once more

gop-2016-trump

Wait a second!

How can a presidential candidate who keeps crowing about his fabulous wealth spend a six-figure amount of dough to pay off legal debts from a charity he founded.

That’s what the Washington Post has reported in connection with Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.

The Post reports that Trump dipped into his charity foundation’s pool. He snatched $258,000 out of it to pay off some legal bills he had accrued.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-used-258000-from-his-charity-to-settle-legal-problems/2016/09/20/adc88f9c-7d11-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html

Doesn’t that betray a trust he made to the donors of his charity? Is this the way to spend money dedicated to do “good work”?

And how does someone with the kind of wealth he keeps telling he has need to use charitable foundation money in the first place?

The Post has compiled a thorough investigation of the story. Trump’s campaign, of course, declared it was full of errors. No one has specified the errors, or even said the story is false.

We all know, of course, that Trump can prove his wealth simply by releasing his tax returns to the public as other presidential candidates have been doing for the past 40 years.

Oh … wait.

business news, local news

Downtown changing its nature, one resident at a time

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I’ve been enjoying the changes I see occurring in downtown Amarillo.

We all know about the construction underway: the Xcel office building, the Embassy Suites Hotel, the parking garage.

Another element is taking shape. It’s potentially the deal-maker for downtown’s revival.

It involves the continued development of urban residences.

The recently Lofts on 10th have received some recognition for their creativity. Other residences have been completed in an old warehouse not far from City Hall. The Eagle Center at the corner of Seventh and Tyler has housed downtown residents for years.

Where does this end? Does all this portend a growing new demographic among Amarillo’s population, which now sits at 200,000 … and growing?

My wife and I recently returned from Germany and The Netherlands, where one at times is hard-pressed to find single-family dwellings in the middle of great cities. There, urban life is a long-standing reality.

It has led to the “gentrification” of many neighborhoods, according to our German friends, who note that formerly run-down neighborhoods have become places that ooze with charm.

Sure, gentrification comes at a price. In many American cities, it drives up the cost of real estate and makes such property less affordable to those who cannot pay the cost of living in high-dollar downtown lofts or condos.

Amarillo’s transition — as I see it — appears to be well under way.

The ballpark construction will begin soon. Xcel Energy’s new office complex is entering its final stage of construction. The convention hotel will open soon, as will the parking garage.

Amarillo voters will get a chance to vote on seven propositions aimed at financing several key construction projects; one of them involves the Civic Center, which many foes of the ballpark said needs dramatic improvement.

It’s invigorating to see the changes that are afoot in a city that at times has resisted it.

business news, national news, political news

Gov. Pence takes the lead on tax returns

tax-return-form

This just in: Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is going to release his tax returns.

Meanwhile, the guy who heads the Republican Party’s presidential ticket, Donald J. Trump, continues to keep his tax returns away from public scrutiny.

Pence is running alongside Trump for the White House.

He told “Meet the Press” in remarks to be broadcast Sunday that he’s going to turn his tax returns loose for the public to inspect.

Oh, and what about Trump? “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd asked Pence. Trump will do so eventually, as soon as the Internal Revenue Service completes its audit.

Hold the phone, dude!

An IRS audit doesn’t preclude release of tax returns.

Once again, I shall state that Trump is refusing to do something that’s been customary for presidential candidates since 1976. No, there’s no law requiring release of the returns. It’s just been a bipartisan tradition that has its roots in the immediate post-Watergate era.

In 1976, Republican President Gerald Ford and Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter agreed to release their returns in reaction to the constitutional scandal that took down a president and sent others to prison.

I’m glad to see Gov. Pence doing the right thing.

Now …

How about the guy at the top of his ticket?

business news, local news

Could a single sign be the catalyst?

2 Comments

downtown ama

A friend of mine made a social media observation this morning I want to share here.

Wes Reeves of Amarillo is a big-time preservationist. He loves to save old buildings and to see old structures brought back to life. He’s a former colleague and we’ve been friends during the 21-plus years I’ve lived in Amarillo.

He notes that 10 years ago, Amarillo’s Center City flipped the switch on a sign in front of the Paramount Building on Polk Street in downtown Amarillo. The sign lit up, the crowd gathered in the street cheered mightily; I was one of them doing the cheering.

Reeves writes: “We hoped it would become a symbol for downtown rebirth, and it has. Since that time, tens of millions of dollars have been invested in downtown. And this sign has been photographed thousands of times by locals and visitors alike.”

He’s a happy young man. I’m happy, too.

He poses an interesting theory as to whether a singular symbolic act could have such a tangible economic impact. It might be pure coincidence that the lighting of the sign — which formerly lit up the entrance to a downtown movie theater — could have played a direct role in the progress that has occurred downtown.

The city did have a Strategic Action Plan in the works when Center City lit the sign. Movement was beginning.

Potter County had renovated the Santa Fe Building one block over and installed government offices into the beautiful structure.

As Reeves noted, too, “tens of millions of dollars” in private investment has been spent downtown since the sign started blazing brightly on Polk Street.

Coincidence? Strategic planning? Divine providence?

Whatever.

The sign was lit. The city has come a long way in the decade since in its effort to revive its downtown district. It still has a ways to go.

I’m believing that all those cheers were worth it that night when they flipped the switch on the Paramount sign.