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Hotel Carrying New Trump Brand Secures $6 Million Tax Break
Source: New York Times
Hotel Carrying New Trump Brand Secures $6 Million Tax Break
By STEVE EDER and BEN PROTESS FEB. 21, 2018
The State of Mississippi on Wednesday awarded a tax break worth up to $6 million for a hotel project involving the Trump family business, a public subsidy that could indirectly benefit President Trump.
The board of the Mississippi Development Authority approved the so-called tourism tax rebate, which had been requested by the development’s local owners, Dinesh and Suresh Chawla. The Trump Organization will brand and manage the hotel and collect fees from the Chawlas for doing so.
The subsidy, to be paid out over a period of many years, is expected to offset nearly a third of the Chawlas’ projected $20 million in costs for building the hotel, which is scheduled to open this fall in Cleveland, Miss. The property, called Scion West End, is to be the first in a new line of four-star Scion hotels that the Trump Organization announced late in the 2016 presidential campaign.
The state’s approval of the tax rebate is the culmination of more than two years of efforts by the Chawlas that predate their partnership with the Trumps, according to emails obtained by The New York Times through a public records request. After the Chawlas announced plans last June to team up with the Trumps, Suresh Chawla alerted an array of personal contacts and state and local officials, including an aide to Mississippi’s governor, Phil Bryant, in emails with the subject line “Trump Hotels Coming to the Mississippi Delta.”
-snip-
By STEVE EDER and BEN PROTESS FEB. 21, 2018
The State of Mississippi on Wednesday awarded a tax break worth up to $6 million for a hotel project involving the Trump family business, a public subsidy that could indirectly benefit President Trump.
The board of the Mississippi Development Authority approved the so-called tourism tax rebate, which had been requested by the development’s local owners, Dinesh and Suresh Chawla. The Trump Organization will brand and manage the hotel and collect fees from the Chawlas for doing so.
The subsidy, to be paid out over a period of many years, is expected to offset nearly a third of the Chawlas’ projected $20 million in costs for building the hotel, which is scheduled to open this fall in Cleveland, Miss. The property, called Scion West End, is to be the first in a new line of four-star Scion hotels that the Trump Organization announced late in the 2016 presidential campaign.
The state’s approval of the tax rebate is the culmination of more than two years of efforts by the Chawlas that predate their partnership with the Trumps, according to emails obtained by The New York Times through a public records request. After the Chawlas announced plans last June to team up with the Trumps, Suresh Chawla alerted an array of personal contacts and state and local officials, including an aide to Mississippi’s governor, Phil Bryant, in emails with the subject line “Trump Hotels Coming to the Mississippi Delta.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/business/trump-hotel-scion-mississippi-tax-rebate.html
