Great News: That New Yacht Is Not Gonna Cost As Much As You Originally Thought

The Governor of New York has proposed taking it easy on would-be yacht owners' wallets.

Author:: Bess Levin
Updated:: Jan 14, 2019
Original:: Apr 1, 2015

Now you can go ahead and spring for the one with the replica of Monaco attached to the top and feel frugal at the same time.

A measure in New York’s state budget would exempt very expensive boats from sales tax, under an agreed-upon budget bill printed over the weekend. The so-called “yacht credit” has not been part of the budget discussion this year, but it appeared quietly over the weekend in a revenue bill, under section SS, that would exempt any portion of the purchase of a boat above $230,000 from sales tax.

Budget includes sales-tax carveout for yachts [CapitalNY]
Shopping for Yacht? New York Budget Offers a Tax Break [NYT]

Hedge Funds

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As those of you who keep up with the trials and travails of hedge fund manager Phil Falcone, a wireless start-up called LightSquared is his baby and the thing that stands to make or break him. To that end, Falcone's invested a significant amount of time, energy, and, most importantly, investor money in seeing his baby succeed. Unfortunately, in the last year or so, LightSquared has been met with some significant setbacks, namely with regard to GPS interference it is said to cause. The yachting community worries that said interference will cause boats to get lost at sea. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says LightSquared“may degrade precision services that track hurricanes, guide farmers and help build flood defenses.” The FAA put out a study that estimates LS "may cost 794 lives in aviation accidents over 10 years with disruptions to satellite-aided navigation." To all of that and more, one man asks, "Yeah, AND???" More Job Killer Than Creator By Karl Rove ...after nearly a decade of regulatory “green lights,” the Obama administration reversed itself and started proceedings to kill LightSquared’s ambitious plan to upgrade the U.S. cellular infrastructure. Why? Because at the eleventh hour, concerns were raised about potential interference with GPS devices — interference that occurs because these devices are listening into the part of the spectrum licensed to LightSquared....This will have consequences. Consumers will lose the chance to get better, cheaper wireless service. Owners of tablets, smartphones and other new devices won’t get faster downloads and greater bandwidth. The country would miss out on a valuable infrastructure improvement based on cutting-edge technology. Thousands of workers in construction, steel, transportation and other industries won’t get work, along with the good paychecks that a privately funded $14 billion project like this generates. Why? Because the Obama administration, which first endorsed and encouraged LightSquared, has now reversed course and gutted it. Given that this is the slowest, most anemic recovery from any recession since World War II, you might expect the administration to be eager to encourage companies to invest in creating jobs, making the economy more productive and increasing economic growth...But based on what it’s done to Keystone XL and now LightSquared, you’d be wrong. All because of some eleventh hour concerns about planes crashing. More job-killer than job-creator [Politico]

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