Zuck's Billions To Newark Ain't Free

How did Mark Zuckerberg get so much money that he can pay $100 million to remake Newark's schools however he wants?

Tax gifts:

The right-wing has been lauding Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin for his decision to renounce his U.S. citizenship in order to avoid taxes. But he isn’t the only one who’s going to slash his tax bill in the wake of Facebook’s upcoming initial public offering: both CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the company itself will lower their tax bill for years to come.

While Zuckerberg will pay a hefty tax bill right off the bat if he follows through on his plan to sell $5 billion in Facebook stock options, as the New York Times noted, he may then never pay a dime of taxes on the rest of his Facebook wealth. “Instead, he can simply use his stock as collateral to borrow against his tremendous wealth and avoid all tax,” the Times reported.

And, as Citizens for Tax Justice has noted, Facebook may use the issuance of stock options to avoid corporate income taxes, instead receiving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in refunds:

Nice. And don't even try to tell me that the Newark gift came before the IPO, so it's different money; IPO's are always the end game for these guys. They've been planning this for years.

It is absolutely accurate to say that at least some of Zuck's $100 million is money that rightly belongs to the American taxpayer; it seems to me we should have a say in how it's being spent. Instead, Supermayor wants to use it to set up a system where teacher workplace protections are destroyed. Supermayor has also spent it to enrich his pals, and the buds of ACTING NJDOE Commissioner Cerf. Those guys came up with, among other things, plans to close public schools and convert them to charters, even though there is no rhyme or reason to the plan.

Well, that's not true; there is a reason...

You know, I'm so old, I can remember when we used to collect a fair share of taxes from rich people. We would then all vote for representatives to decide how to spend that money; you know, on schools and stuff. Everyone got a say, rich or poor.

I think we called it democracy. Maybe we could try that in Newark some time.

Fighting for truth, justice, and America Zuck's way!