Posted on 11/25/2013 5:59:18 PM PST by SeekAndFind
On Friday, I mentioned that it seems that the odyssey of fail that was the Obama administration’s commitment to “investing” in Fisker Automotive was finally drawing to a merciful close, as the Department of Energy managed to (kind of shadily?) auction off the down-and-out company to some Chinese investors. With the deal, Americans taxpayers would only be taking a net hit of an oh-so-trifling $130 million or so. No big deal, right?
Wrong.
The Department of Energy originally extended Fisker a $529 million line of credit back in the 2009 stimulus effort, but cut off the already ailing Fisker in 2011 after having dished out only about $190 million. Including the recent auction, the DOE has managed to recover only about $53 million of that loan, which is where the number of the $130 million for which taxpayers will be on the hook came from — except that that specific loan guarantee apparently wasn’t the only tax break of which Fisker was one of the Obama administration’s anointed beneficiaries. According to Reuters:
The bankruptcy of Fisker Automotive could end up costing the U.S. government much more than the $168 million it loaned to the maker of the Karma plug-in hybrid sports car.
According to its bankruptcy filing on Friday, Fisker owns tax breaks worth $320 million.
Fisker’s bankruptcy papers said the Southern California-based company plans to sell its automotive operations to a business affiliated with Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li, but it will hold on to the tax breaks after it emerges from bankruptcy.
Fisker piled up some $800 million in net operating losses in recent years, which have a future cash benefit worth approximately $320 million, according to the bankruptcy filing.
That lost tax revenue would add to taxpayers’ pain from Fisker’s failure.
The Obama administration’s green-energy loan guarantees: The “investments” on behalf of the American taxpayer and overriding the obviously cretinous free-market signals of the private sector that just won’t die.
How much of that went into leftist slush funds?
The plant sits idle in DE. No property tax, no income tax, no gross receipts tax, nothing. And the property is wasting away.
Yet another”Solyndra Success Story”?????????????????????
These deals get a lot of play on FR and nil in the MSM.
ENRON was a nationally hyped MSM event for months.
IIRC they even had made for tv movies about it.
Solyndra was a ripple. Fisker a bit less.
How much of that went into leftist slush funds?
If you need to ask, GeronL, you probably can't afford it.
very true
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