Get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
-- Bob Dylan

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Maybe Pritzker left it in her other purse...

Obama's pick for Commerce Secretary and former Rahm-appointed Chicago school board member, Penny Pritzker "inadvertently ommitted" more than $80 million in reported income. Hey, mistakes happen. Been there, done that, says Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who was on the receiving end of a Pritzker "courtesy call" this week and who is almost as rich as Pritzker.

Emily Heil writes in the Washington Post:
That might sound like a lot of money, but it’s all relative. Pritzker, whose family founded the Hyatt hotel chain, is worth about $1.5 billion. So it’s easy to see how a few million — or 80 — could go missing. Maybe she left it in the other purse? 
According to Sun-Times columnist, Lynn Sweet:
Pritzker’s biggest hurdle toward confirmation will be Republicans grilling her on the major stain on her record, the 2001 failure of Superior Bank, a Hinsdale Savings and Loan, and tax avoidance strategies employed by her trusts and business empire.
The Pritzker family founded Hyatt Hotels, and have been at odds with UNITE HERE Local 1, the hotel workers union for years. Pritzker is on the board — she will step down if confirmed — and the union, after at first giving Pritzker a pass, in recent days has started a campaign to oppose her; an ad in Politico called her appointment “The President’s mistake.”
Pritzker is also taking some heat for sheltering millions in taxable income in offshore trusts. On financial disclosure forms, Pritzker has revealed that she received $53.6 million in income in 2012 from a trust in the Bahamas. The income is described as being paid for “consulting services.” The offshore issue is sure to bring questions from congressional Republicans, especially on the heels of a Senate hearing into tax avoidance by Apple Inc., whose chief executive defended the company’s actions this week by protesting, “We don’t stash our money on some Caribbean island.”

Pritzker's resignation left the school board with only 6 voting members left to rubber-stamp the mayor's massive school closing plan.

No comments:

Post a Comment