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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > April > 21 > Entry
Boehner, West Chester Twp. business owner have tax complaints
The CEO of a local high-end pigment manufacturing company painted a dark picture of his family business’ future under tax initiatives put forward by President Barack Obama.
U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester Twp., toured the Shepherd Color Company Monday, April 20, and listened to the business owners’ concerns.
“With the tax that’s being proposed, we wouldn’t be able to erect this,” company CEO Tom Shepherd told Boehner, gesturing to a massive $1 million paint-making robot that scooped and cooked pigment powder.
Shepherd — whose companies in West Chester Twp., Middletown, Newport, Ky., and Monroe employ hundreds of people — said chief among his concerns is the proposed cap-and-trade carbon emissions program, which could cost his company “millions of dollars a year.”
In addition to making him buy carbon emissions allowances, Shepherd said the policy would drive up the cost of electricity, which it takes a lot of to cook kilns at 2,000 degree Fahrenheit.
He also asked Boehner to stop the proposed estate tax, saying his is a fourth generation company and he doesn’t want 45 percent of his share of the company taxed away when he dies.
“There’s a fifth generation, and I’d like nothing better than for them to be able to come into the businesses and own it,” he said.
Finally, he beseeched Boehner to do something about a little-discussed change in Obama’s budget that would tax the appreciation of raw materials that go into his products.
“Businesses like The Shepherd Color Company are the driving engines of our economy,” Boehner said. “Higher taxes mean they’re not able to invest in their business, which at the end of the day means they have to hire less people.”
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