GOP charges on tax break for Heinz Kerry farm denied

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04195/345641.stm

A top Allegheny County Republican Party official yesterday lambasted Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, saying he has benefited from the same tax breaks for the rich that he has railed against in his campaign against George Bush.

Bob Glancy, chairman of the Allegheny County Republican Committee, said Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, has enjoyed a reduced property tax bill because her 88-acre estate in Fox Chapel, valued at about $3.1 million, is assessed as farmland.

But Marla Romash, senior adviser for Teresa Heinz Kerry, said Glancy is playing politics without the facts.

<snip>

"As a result, he's way off the mark. Mrs. Heinz Kerry does not receive the so-called 'Clean and Green' write-off because she has chosen not to apply for it."

<snip>

But in a letter Heinz Kerry wrote, dated March 12, 2002, to former county Chief Executive James Roddey(R), she said she was "not writing to express my anger, but to point out that my property is being undertaxed."

And if you read further Chimpy got a $23,000+ tax break on the pig farm cause he accepted an agricultural exemption. Bet Heinz-Kerry raises more crops than he does since Teresa is in to gardening!

[Placebo]

1. I HEART TERESA.

She is going to be one of the greatest first ladies we've ever seen! So intelligent, so worldly, and so beautiful!

[mom cat]

16. I heard her last night in Boston. She is as smooth as silk. WOW

O8)

[Justice]

17. Wasn't She Great?

Loved the line: We need a president who is not phased by complexity.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Bob Glancy did some great publicity for Teresa Heinz Kerry

and it wasn't intentional, was it? He hoped to really smear her, to portray her as Republican-like, and ended up looking simply stupid. From this great article:

She said two assessment notices sent in 2000 and 2002 both incorrectly reduced her property value and asked that "someone with the authority to do so will make the proper correction and bill me accordingly."

Romash said Heinz Kerry paid the higher amount.

Romash also turned the tables on Glancy and criticized President Bush, saying he saved $23,679 last year because of an agricultural exemption on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. In 2002, she said, Bush accepted an exemption that reduced the property from $2.1 million to $950,000.
(snip/...)

In the meantime, according to info. I found on Pennsylvania Republicans in Allegheny County, he keeps busy stuffing his own pockets with Defense Contract bidness:

R. A. Glancy, Incorporated*, Gibsonia, Pa., is being awarded a $5,905,523 firm-fixed- price contract to construct a new 26,000 square foot fuel cell maintenance facility for the Pennsylvania Air National Guard 171st Air Refueling Wing. The work includes demolition and relocation of existing site utilities, storm drainage systems, fueling and underground piping systems, existing aircraft parking apron demolition, and installation of new utilities. Work will be performed in Coraopolis, Pa., and is expected to be completed by September 17, 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 25 bids solicited on February 2, 1996, and five bids received. The contracting activity is the National Guard Bureau, Annville, Pa. (DAHA36-96-C-0005).
(snip/)

http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/1996/c082996_ct507-96.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More Glancy gossip:

TAKING A GLANCY AT THE TREASURER'S JOB. With a U.S. District Court judgeship in his future, Reed Smith attorney Tom Hardiman is stepping down as Allegheny County Republican Committee treasurer.

His likely replacement: McCandless construction baron Bob Glancy of R.A. Glancy & Sons construction company. He's apparently being pushed strongly for the position by GOP committee Secretary Heather Heidelbaugh.

Glancy just donated time and materials to renovate the committee's Downtown headquarters, leaving some Republicans wondering if he will be able to write himself checks for the work once he gets the treasurer's job.
(snip/...)

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/columnists/whispers/s_131245.html

[sandnsea]

3. Teresa, you're an angel!!!

Not only does she not apply for the lower rate, like Bush and just about anybody else would do, she writes to correct an assessment and pays MORE taxes. A rare gem in an ugly and cynical world.

This is going to give every tight-wad Republican in the country a severe case of the screamin' meanies.

[hyphenate]

4. Good one!

Good article to save and throw back into the faces of the pugs anytime we need to (once again) fling their hypocrisy back at them.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

5. So Teresa wants to do her part and pay MORE taxes

What uncommon exemplary behavior.

[BiggJawn]

6. Dems are supposed to be poor, like the "peasants" they claim to love...

That's the GOP mantra.

Now to use the GOP yardstick, I'm a blithering idiot because i don't make even 50 kilobucks. The principal of "If you're so smart, whay ain't you RICH?"...

OK, so be it. I'll admit, I'm not as smart as some high school drop-out who loves NASCAR, Bush and his Union factory job, simply because I'm poor.

But even a fiscal and mental defective such as myself can see these GOP "But she's RICH! What a hypocrit!" arguments are bullshit...

[PA Democrat]

7. What a surprise that the greedy money-grubbing

Bush would use the very tax write-off for his Crawford "ranch" that they false accused Teresa Heinz Kerry of using. These people are BRAZEN in their hypocrisy.

[Cocoa]

8. so then this other story is quite misleading...

clearly suggests that this farm is getting the tax break...


http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/newssummary/s_202878.html

<snip>

A 10-building Fox Chapel compound owned by Teresa Heinz Kerry, which includes a Colonial mansion assessed at $658,000 and a handful of steers and chickens, is listed on tax rolls as an 88-acre farm. Her husband, Sen. John F. Kerry -- the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for president -- affectionately calls her "the lady of the farm."

A spokeswoman for Heinz Kerry declined to comment on the assessment.

[RamboLiberal]

9. Bet Teresa has more steers and chickens than AWOL

Course AWOL has more chickenhawks on his farm!

Tha latter article is from Dicky Mellon Scaife's paper and he of course is madly digging and paying for all the dirt he can on Kerry, Teresa, Edwards, etc.

[Cocoa]

11. that explains his snippy response to my email

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 9:24 AM
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Heinz farm tax break

Dear Carl,

Your story on tax breaks for farms clearly suggests that the Heinz farm got
that break.

But in a story today in the Post-Gazette, the assessor states that this is
not so.

I think this calls for a correction.


His response:



Absolutely not. We never said she received a Clean & Green tax break. We
said that her land is assessed as farmland, and that she receives a break
for that that's separate from Clean & Green. Clean & Green gives very deep
breaks in exchange for a promise not to develop it. She didn't opt for
that.

I will now accept YOUR apology.

Carl Prine

[ItsThePeopleStupid]

13. according to the article, that's still wrong:

Sam Wilson, head of assessment for Allegheny County, also characterized Glancy's criticism as "politics as usual" and said the Heinz estate is not assessed as farmland.

Although the county Web site lists it as a "general farm," Wilson said anything over 10 acres is put in that category, but it has no effect on the actual assessment.

Go Teresa!

[RamboLiberal]

14. They must employ snippy reporters

I remember getting a snippy response from the paper's editor when I told him something they did in the web edition seemed to be on purpose by a clever web writer and not a slip.

[themaguffin]

15. exactly!

It's Scaife propaganda and it has tried to compete with the Post-Gazette, but you can see why it never will.

[LiberalBushFan]

10. and even if she did get a tax break...

she could use it as proof of how ridiculous the policy is.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. He's railing against tax cuts that could benefit him?

I'm all for that.

When was the last time a republican railed against money for him/herself?