Taxing Jobs
Last Friday’s tax deadline was particularly painful for big wage earners subjected to the Clinton Administration’s retroactive tax increase on families earning $200,000 or more.
Among those who moved relatively recently into the category are three of the state’s best-known politicians, according to information in the latest California Lawyer magazine. Each is now making rain at Los Angeles law offices.
According to the magazine, former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s pay has jumped from $117,884 as mayor to an estimated $400,000 as senior counsel at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison.
Former Gov. George Deukmejian now makes an estimated $700,000 as a partner at Sidley & Austin, according to the magazine, compared to $120,000 as governor.
Also doing well is Mel Levine, the former Westside congressman who now is a corporate partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. The magazine estimates Levine earns $750,000 annually, according to the magazine, compared to $133,000 as a congressman.
On the Block?
One of the higher-profile Southern California real estate properties taxpayers have been stuck with as a result of the nation’s savings and loan mess may soon be for sale.
Real estate sources say the federal Resolution Trust Corp. is close to putting up for sale the Hyatt Newporter in Newport Beach, a resort it inherited when regulators seized the now-defunct Columbia Savings & Loan in Beverly Hills.
The asking price will probably be in the $20-million range, sources estimate, a far cry from the $70 million or so Columbia executives sank into the hotel.
The 32-year-old resort does boast a bit of history that might help with the sales pitch. In 1969, a villa at the hotel served briefly as a summer office for then-President Richard Nixon.
Seeing Isn’t Believing
Some of the national press is coming around to the idea that California’s economy is finally on the mend.
At least a handful of people still think it never was sick.
A just-published survey of California bankers taken in January by the accounting firm Grant Thornton found that 2% believed “we never were in a recession.”
Granted, it’s a minority opinion. Some 77% of the bankers polled in January said the region still is in a recession, while 31% said a recovery is just starting.
Briefly. . .
Competition for “101 Dalmatians”: A Tennessee company is selling a two-hour video “covering the facts and fallacies surrounding the Doberman.” . . . Improving his defense: Texas Rangers slugger Jose Canseco is a spokesman for a South Carolina company that trains and sells German shepherd guard dogs. . . . Harpers Business Publishers is sponsoring “The Messiest Office in American Contest” essay competition this month in which anti-clutter author Jeffrey Mayer will organize the winner’s office.
