Florida lawmakers weigh tax break for yachts and planes
As state lawmakers pinch pennies to balance the budget, they also consider a tax break on boats and planes that would benefit the wealthy
BY ALEX LEARY
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE -- At the same time lawmakers are slashing the state budget, considering laying off dozens of government workers and increasing fees and taxes, they are also pushing a break for the richest Floridians.
A bill moving through the Legislature would cap the sales tax on boats and planes at $25,000. It's being called the Aviation and Maritime Full Employment Act.
''The bill does exactly what the name suggests: It is designed to create jobs and spur economic growth,'' Rep. Tom Grady said before a House panel voted Tuesday to advance the proposal.
But the move comes as lawmakers have agonized over closing existing sales tax exemptions to help plug a $3 billion budget hole -- an exercise that has all but been abandoned.
''It's ridiculous,'' said Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando. We're talking about increasing the cost of a driver's license and other fees and now we're going to hand out tax breaks to those who can afford yachts and planes? People would be outraged.''
Friday, May 22, 2009
Now It's Boats and Yachts
Luxury boat builder Tiara Yachts lays off 300 due to slow sales
by Julia Bauer The Grand Rapids Press
Thursday February 26, 2009, 9:48 AM
Holland, Michigan -- Luxury boat builder Tiara Yachts will lay off 300 of its 400 employees for at least a month.
"It's the economy that is largely to blame," said Dave Walsh, director of marketing. "We need 30 days to allow sales activity to catch up with production. We hope that it will."
The temporary layoffs follow a series of permanent cuts last year, when 300 jobs were eliminated. This round is different, Walsh said.
"Based on the slowdown in business, we hope to call all of them back," he said.
Tiara's remaining skeleton crew includes office workers for customer support, and some production workers to complete parts already under way.
The latest layoffs and a steep drop in demand comes after several years of expansion for the Holland company, which invested more than $20 million since 2005 and once employing nearly 800.
Maine boat builders laying off workers Yard owners say buyers have cash, but not eager to let it go in face of uncertain national economy
by Dieter Bradbury Portland Press Herald
Maine's builders of luxury boats are laying off workers and struggling to diversify in the face of a recession that has softened demand for high-end yachts and powerboats.
Sabre Yachts has laid off about 100 people, or half the work force at its boatyards in Casco and Rockland, since November, a company official said Tuesday.
Hinckley Yachts, one of Maine's signature boatbuilders, announced last week that it was laying off 26 workers and might have to shut down its production operation in Trenton if conditions don't improve.
At Lyman-Morse Boatbuilders in Thomaston, the company is investigating blade construction for wind turbines and other projects related to alternative energy, in order to enhance revenue.
Others say their yards are keeping busy on the strength of orders placed before the economy crumbled, but many are casting a nervous eye to the future.
"There's still a lot of people out there with a fair amount of money," said Frank Hull, vice president at Brooklin Boat Yard. "They just don't want to spend it."
Maine has about 70 boatyards that build a diverse array of commercial and recreational vessels, ranging from tugboats and lobster boats to ocean-going yachts and motorcraft.
Anxiety Is Up as Orders Fall at [New Jersey] Boatyards
New York Times, New Jersey Edition
By DUNSTAN A. MCNICHOL
Published: April 3, 2009
“We’re planning on 40 percent less product,” Andrew Davala, a Viking vice president, said recently. “And we’re keeping the lines going at a slower pace.”
Viking, the state’s biggest boat builder, now has a payroll of 800, down from 1,360 a year ago, Mr. Davala said.
Orders for medium-sized boats, the 46-foot to 68-foot models that sell for about $1 million apiece, are off so sharply that Viking is running its production line for those boats at half speed through the summer, he said.
The boat yards at Viking and other New Jersey boat builders, once symbols of the state’s booming economy, are now piling up with unsold inventory, where the gleaming new boats have suddenly turned into million-dollar bellwethers of financial collapse.
In January, Viking and another yacht maker, Silverton Marine in Millville, announced plans to lay off or furlough 742 workers by the end of March. The boatyard cutbacks were two of the three largest layoffs reported to the State Department of Labor in January.
In the last 18 months New Jersey boat builders have eliminated about 1,000 jobs, a microcosm of the surge in joblessness that pushed New Jersey’s unemployment rate to 8.2 percent last month, higher than the national rate for the first time in many years.
“It hurts us, but it hurts everybody,” said John Foster, 43, who was furloughed in February, joining more than 500 other Viking workers let go since last summer in the face of a collapse in yacht sales. “I don’t have any bitter things to say about Viking; they held off as long as they could.”
In nearby Weekstown, Ocean Yachts has been bleeding jobs for two years, said the general manager, John Leek IV. In that time Ocean’s staff has dwindled from 130 to just 50 employees.
by Julia Bauer The Grand Rapids Press
Thursday February 26, 2009, 9:48 AM
Holland, Michigan -- Luxury boat builder Tiara Yachts will lay off 300 of its 400 employees for at least a month.
"It's the economy that is largely to blame," said Dave Walsh, director of marketing. "We need 30 days to allow sales activity to catch up with production. We hope that it will."
The temporary layoffs follow a series of permanent cuts last year, when 300 jobs were eliminated. This round is different, Walsh said.
"Based on the slowdown in business, we hope to call all of them back," he said.
Tiara's remaining skeleton crew includes office workers for customer support, and some production workers to complete parts already under way.
The latest layoffs and a steep drop in demand comes after several years of expansion for the Holland company, which invested more than $20 million since 2005 and once employing nearly 800.
Maine boat builders laying off workers Yard owners say buyers have cash, but not eager to let it go in face of uncertain national economy
by Dieter Bradbury Portland Press Herald
Maine's builders of luxury boats are laying off workers and struggling to diversify in the face of a recession that has softened demand for high-end yachts and powerboats.
Sabre Yachts has laid off about 100 people, or half the work force at its boatyards in Casco and Rockland, since November, a company official said Tuesday.
Hinckley Yachts, one of Maine's signature boatbuilders, announced last week that it was laying off 26 workers and might have to shut down its production operation in Trenton if conditions don't improve.
At Lyman-Morse Boatbuilders in Thomaston, the company is investigating blade construction for wind turbines and other projects related to alternative energy, in order to enhance revenue.
Others say their yards are keeping busy on the strength of orders placed before the economy crumbled, but many are casting a nervous eye to the future.
"There's still a lot of people out there with a fair amount of money," said Frank Hull, vice president at Brooklin Boat Yard. "They just don't want to spend it."
Maine has about 70 boatyards that build a diverse array of commercial and recreational vessels, ranging from tugboats and lobster boats to ocean-going yachts and motorcraft.
Anxiety Is Up as Orders Fall at [New Jersey] Boatyards
New York Times, New Jersey Edition
By DUNSTAN A. MCNICHOL
Published: April 3, 2009
“We’re planning on 40 percent less product,” Andrew Davala, a Viking vice president, said recently. “And we’re keeping the lines going at a slower pace.”
Viking, the state’s biggest boat builder, now has a payroll of 800, down from 1,360 a year ago, Mr. Davala said.
Orders for medium-sized boats, the 46-foot to 68-foot models that sell for about $1 million apiece, are off so sharply that Viking is running its production line for those boats at half speed through the summer, he said.
The boat yards at Viking and other New Jersey boat builders, once symbols of the state’s booming economy, are now piling up with unsold inventory, where the gleaming new boats have suddenly turned into million-dollar bellwethers of financial collapse.
In January, Viking and another yacht maker, Silverton Marine in Millville, announced plans to lay off or furlough 742 workers by the end of March. The boatyard cutbacks were two of the three largest layoffs reported to the State Department of Labor in January.
In the last 18 months New Jersey boat builders have eliminated about 1,000 jobs, a microcosm of the surge in joblessness that pushed New Jersey’s unemployment rate to 8.2 percent last month, higher than the national rate for the first time in many years.
“It hurts us, but it hurts everybody,” said John Foster, 43, who was furloughed in February, joining more than 500 other Viking workers let go since last summer in the face of a collapse in yacht sales. “I don’t have any bitter things to say about Viking; they held off as long as they could.”
In nearby Weekstown, Ocean Yachts has been bleeding jobs for two years, said the general manager, John Leek IV. In that time Ocean’s staff has dwindled from 130 to just 50 employees.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
What's Going On?
What’s Going On?
Ford outsold Toyota in the U.S. last month. Buick topped Lexus in J.D. Power and Chevy Malibu was top rated mid-size over Honda and Toyota, but nobody notices...
The real shame is G.M. getting rid of Pontiac. The Pontiac G8 is the neatest car on the road today. Just a beautiful machine inside and out. And real performance too. I should buy one while they are still available.
Ford outsold Toyota in the U.S. last month. Buick topped Lexus in J.D. Power and Chevy Malibu was top rated mid-size over Honda and Toyota, but nobody notices...
The real shame is G.M. getting rid of Pontiac. The Pontiac G8 is the neatest car on the road today. Just a beautiful machine inside and out. And real performance too. I should buy one while they are still available.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Ford outsells Toyota
Ford outsells Toyota as auto sales drops go on
BY JEWEL GOPWANI • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • May 2, 2009
Ford Motor Company turned the tables on Toyota Motor Co. in April, outselling Japan's largest automaker in monthly sales for the first time in more than a year.
Ford, which has been promoting itself as the "different" American automaker that is surviving without federal assistance, sold 129,476 cars and trucks in April. Toyota sold 126,540.
For the year, Ford sales are still about 46,000 vehicles behind Toyota. But Ford is benefiting from its new Fusion hybrid and gasoline-powered models, which Ford is billing as "America's most fuel-efficient mid-sized sedan."
Toyota reported the second-largest decline, with sales falling 42%, as popular models struggled.
April sales of the once-popular Toyota Prius hybrid declined 61.5%, compared with the same month a year ago, when gas prices were at least $1 higher. Sales of the Camry, usually the nation's best-selling passenger car, fell 37%.Across the U.S. auto industry, meanwhile, light-vehicle sales fell 34.4% in April, compared with the same month last year. That was the 18th consecutive month of declines. For the year, U.S. new-vehicle sales are now off 37.4%.
BY JEWEL GOPWANI • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • May 2, 2009
Ford Motor Company turned the tables on Toyota Motor Co. in April, outselling Japan's largest automaker in monthly sales for the first time in more than a year.
Ford, which has been promoting itself as the "different" American automaker that is surviving without federal assistance, sold 129,476 cars and trucks in April. Toyota sold 126,540.
For the year, Ford sales are still about 46,000 vehicles behind Toyota. But Ford is benefiting from its new Fusion hybrid and gasoline-powered models, which Ford is billing as "America's most fuel-efficient mid-sized sedan."
Toyota reported the second-largest decline, with sales falling 42%, as popular models struggled.
April sales of the once-popular Toyota Prius hybrid declined 61.5%, compared with the same month a year ago, when gas prices were at least $1 higher. Sales of the Camry, usually the nation's best-selling passenger car, fell 37%.Across the U.S. auto industry, meanwhile, light-vehicle sales fell 34.4% in April, compared with the same month last year. That was the 18th consecutive month of declines. For the year, U.S. new-vehicle sales are now off 37.4%.
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