Rich GOP donors are getting Trump ‘anti-poverty’ tax breaks—for projects like a super-yacht marina

  • 11/14/2019 9:43 am ET Sunny Hundal
How a billionaire got a giant Trump-tax-break for his super-yacht marina

Screenshot / YouTube

In April 2018, billionaire developer Wayne Huizenga Jr. wanted to build luxury apartment towers next to the Rybovich superyacht marina, in West Palm Beach, Florida.

So he wrote a letter to then Florida Governor Rick Scott asking for a tax break. Mr. Huizenga and his family had been donors to Gov. Scott so he got a hearing.

A week later he got his tax break.

Governor Scott announced he was designating Rybovich marina area into an opportunity zone—a low tax wheeze dreamed up by President Trump—which was meant to help the poor.

A special investigation by the non-partisan site ProPublica found that the tax break didn’t just help Wayne Huizenga Jr.

Two other Scott donors, both billionaires, also benefit: Jorge Pérez, the Related Group chairman and CEO known as the condo king of South Florida; and Stephen Ross, a prominent Trump fundraiser, real estate magnate, and Miami Dolphins and Equinox gym part-owner. Ross’ Related Companies owns a quarter of Related Group, which is Rybovich’s partner on the planned Marina Village development.

The investigation found

President Trump’s 2017 tax code overhaul created a special dispensation for ‘opportunity zones’ that would qualify them for a tax break.

Rick Scott labeled the marina an opportunity zone making it eligible for a tax break after a direct appeal from one of his donors—Huizenga Jr. The area had not previously been under consideration.

Scott made the same move on another wealthy downtown area in Miami after a request of a firm controlled by billionaire donor Jeff Vinik.

In August, President Trump claimed that opportunity zones “are doing unbelievably well. And you’ll see that, and you’ve already seen it.”

“And the biggest beneficiary there is African Americans,” he added, though there is no evidence to suggest this is true.

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