From the St. Louis Riverfront Times comes this story by reporter Chad Garrison:
Rex Sinquefield Registers His Bentley and His Vote in Osage County.
The man who's poured millions of dollars of his own money into an effort to change the tax structure in St. Louis is not registered to vote in St. Louis, even though he owns a $1.7 million mansion inside city limits.
Instead, Sinquefield casts his vote in Osage County in central Missouri, where he owns an 8,100-square-foot mansion and some 580 acres of land. Maintaining his permanent address in Osage County also allows Sinquefield to save thousands of dollars each year on personal property taxes for his fleet of automobiles, boats and ATVs.
Sinquefield isn't breaking any laws by registering his Bentley and all his personal property in Osage County.
Rex Sinquefield launched and continues to lead the Show-Me-Institute. Ideas they advance are typically thoughtful.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't lock-step to every conclusion the Show-Me-Institute reaches, Sinquefield appears to deeply care about important issues like education and he has the financial means to make an impact.
If Sinquefield saved a few grand on his tax bill by choosing to register vehicles at the property with the lowest assessment, he no doubt put that money he saved to better use than our government would had he overpaid on his tax obligation. Cool.
sip the kool-aid slowly.
ReplyDeleteYou missed the entire point of this post.
I must have missed it as well. What does it matter where he resides? This is on the ballot statewide. Maybe you can explain your point?
ReplyDeleteAnon 1:43 --- it matters because the guy works and lives in ....
ReplyDeletesheet, if you have to have it explained to you, it ain't worth explaining.
Busplunge,
ReplyDeleteThank you for doing what you do. For the past month I have enjoyed your Blog, followed links and conducted some fact-finding quests. I am also the one who made the first comment in regards to Chad Garrison’s post and I want to explain that my comments were friendly or at least neutral to you.
Proposition A bars cities in Missouri from imposing earnings taxes and at the same time overturns recent 1% earnings taxes imposed in St. Louis and Kansas City. Sinquefield’s possessions and personal property taxes aren’t analogous to earnings taxes from my vantage point. Sinquefield may generate earnings from work in St Louis and the earning’s tax may already impact him but I am unarmed on that issue and it frankly isn’t too interesting to me.
It is, however, always interesting to follow the dollar, and the reason I introduced information about the Show-Me-Institute was in case someone was interested in knowing more about Sinquefield, why he appears to have the wealth that he does and why he may be investing so much into the initiative (which is more salient than what is in his toy box). With this and additional information about how the initiative may affect Missouri, the reader can react based on their own views of the planet (as long as they promise to follow the dollar).
I didn’t vote for Billy, Zel or Roy. :- )
Jim
Jim @ 6:11 PM --
ReplyDeleteyou made the point better than I ever could. Thank you.
I remember a comment made by someone whom I respect who basically said, and I paraphrase, that anytime one man puts over 10 million dollars into a ballot proposition and he is the only one, there is reason to suspect his motives.
bus driver