Brent Wilkes wants you to pay taxes, himself not so much

Brent like many progressive Democrats support higher Taxes and they especially love property taxes. The funny thing about property taxes is that they are a regressive tax because poorer people spend a larger percentage of their income on housing than wealthier people. A property tax is based on the value of your property. It is the same regardless of your income. If your income goes down, the tax becomes a bigger percentage of your income.

But income taxes are a different story. See people like Brent know how to game the system. Take his parasitic company NEAMI, Northeast Association Management, Inc. NEAMI has been draining PERMA dry for years. Wilkes Has enjoyed a very comfortable lifestyle off premiums paid by Taxpayers to cover job related injuries to municipal workers. These premiums that are meant to cover lost wages and medical expenses end up buying a MacMansion in one of Saratoga Springs near gated communities called Waters Edge. Brent owns 5 Thames Way which he purchased for $729,900 on 9/8/2006. Not too shabby, but about as far removed from the real Saratoga as one can get. No mixed housing allowed here, just a collection of rich white dudes with their well-scrubbed kids. Brent has also grieved his assessment down to $392,700 (82% of Market Value). Yes Brent is a tricky one all right. Remember I NEVER said he did anything illegal but while he complains about the cities use of Lawyers to defend itself he has no problem hiring the best tax attorneys in the business to avoid paying taxes himself. So let’s look at his Business

Several readers contacted me to ask me several follow-up questions about my interview with wanna-be-mayor Brent Wilkes. The two most often asked questions were variants of these:

1. How could be Brent serve as the President of PERMA when it was his company, Northeast Management Association, that was being paid and not him?

2. Why did Brent want PERMA to pay his company rather than him for his services as President of the not-for-profit entity?

Well, based on what I’ve been able to figure out from talking to people who know about this type of stuff, it looks like this strange set up was simply another good old tax dodge. Yep…by having his compensation from PERMA run through his company, Brent was apparently able to shield income that would otherwise be taxed at the highest possible tax rate and charge off lots of “business expenses” like cars, insurance, meals, internet service, cable TV, cell phones, business attire, etc., etc. etc.

Here’s how it works: If old Brent had taking his roughly $6 million per year as simple taxable income, the vast majority of those funds would have been taxed at the maximum income tax rate of 35%. Instead, by funneling that $6 million per year into his company, Brent (or anyone else in his position) would have been able to charge off lots of what would otherwise have been normal living expenses – which is like paying for them with pre-tax dollars.

I’m told that there’s nothing illegal about Brent’s set up with PERMA, though one person did indicate that it’s “highly unusual” to have a not-for-profit entity basically hire a for profit company to serve as its President. And if anyone believes, as Brent claims, that he had nothing to do with the decision of PERMA’s Board of Directors to hire his company, then you need to check yourself into a hospital. You really are too far gone

Is it just me – or does it seem really strange that the Democratic candidate for mayor is employing tax schemes that the general public usually associate with Republicans at the same time that our current mayor, a Republican, is donating his entirely salary to charitable causes?

HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE: As late as 1963, the highest income tax rate in the U.S. was a staggering 91%. Yep, back then, even guys like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett would have been paying their “fair share” – and the country wasn’t running a $1.5 trillion annual deficit like we are now.

You know I just find something awfully distasteful about this guy.The people camped out in parks in this country in the name of occupy America may not even know it but they are protesting against tax dodging progressive Democrats like Wilkes who employs every trick in the book to evade paying taxes while making millions off the misery of injured workers and that’s just wrong.

He has now loaned himself more than $20,600.00 to win this campaign See HERE. Not to mention the $5000 he gave to Saratoga Citizen. Maybe I’ve just gotten cynical in my old age but I just can’t believe this clown is spending all his money to get elected for purely altruistic reasons….

I will be at the meet the candidates night this evening at 7 p.m. in the Saratoga Eagle Community Room, 45 Duplainville Road, in the Grande Industrial Park.

Hope to see you there.