The Sacramento Bee
reported another shady Schwarzenegger business deal yesterday: One of
the gov’s companies avoided millions in state and federal income taxes
by buying a jet plane and leasing it back to the airline they bought it
from.
The airplane deal was set up by an investment firm whose role in
developing these tax schemes is under investigation by the IRS. The
gov’s people won’t comment on whether the Feds are on the gov’s tail
too. But Team Arnold’s silence on Schwarzenegger’s jet setting begs the
question: What else are they hiding?
"Arnold likes paying taxes," claimed financial advisors during the
recall campaign. Yet the candidate who said he didn’t need money from
anybody (yet proceeded to become the state’s most prolific fundraiser)
also fudged his lines when he claimed he paid all the taxes he owed.
The gov’s last secret business deal — a multi-million dollar contract
with muscle magazines that benefited from his official actions —
crashed and burned.
Full disclosure of Arnold’s financial dealings and tax returns is long overdue.
