Posted on 10/11/2007 7:00:15 AM PDT by Brilliant
Edited on 10/11/2007 7:04:57 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
If there were a Hall of Fame for those who've done the most to pad the pay of top CEOs, Carl Levin would be a first-ballot shoo-in. Strangely, however, the Michigan Democrat seems unhappy with his own political handiwork.
The Senator was chief architect of the biggest single boon to stock-option issuance back in the 1990s -- the change in the tax code that limited the tax deductibility of executive pay to $1 million, unless that pay was "performance based." Stock-option grants have since soared, and executive pay has climbed to even greater heights. The difference is that now close to half that CEO compensation comes from options, which avoid his $1 million cap because the options are in the money only if the stock goes up. Ergo, they are "performance-based."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
On the state level in Michigan most taxpayers are getting shafted. Some are fighting back:
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