State OKs $80 Million in Tax Refunds to Companies
None of the firms benefiting from a tax credit for equipment purchases paid state income taxes. Activists threaten lawsuit. By Evan Halper Times Staff Writer
January 26, 2005 SACRAMENTO - A powerful state tax board has awarded a group of companies that paid no corporate income taxes in recent years $80.6 million in refunds. The board voted to give 18 companies, most of them technology firms, the refunds for manufacturing equipment they had purchased. A similar vote by the board last month for three companies that received about $5 million - against the advice of the board's staff - triggered an angry reaction from consumer advocacy groups. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-refunds26jan26,1,3618557,print.story?coll=la-headlines-california
-- Marta Russell Los Angeles, CA http://www.martarussell.com/