Monday, December 12, 2011

Republicans lay another troubled business loan at Jay Nixon's door


(From the Missouri Republican Party)

The Kirksville Daily Express reported this morning that another of Jay Nixon’s failed economic development projects could have been prevented if only his administration had done adequate due diligence.

This time, the issue is a $1 million loan to a Kirksville company called Wi-Fi Sensors, which Nixon personally announced in July 2009. But after Nixon and the TV cameras left, the company defaulted on the loan and none of the promised jobs have actually been created.

Now, the Daily Express is reporting that the Nixon Administration missed series of warning signs prior to approving the loan, including state and federal tax liens again the company’s president and one of his other businesses. 

According to the paper“Records obtained by the Daily Express show at the time of their application to the Community Development Block Grant Action Fund Loan program, the state of California had an active tax lien against a former business operated by Wi-Fi President Peter Fuhr. The business, B4HI, Inc., owes the State of California’s Franchise Tax Board $1,067.15 for unpaid taxes from 2003. The lien was filed in Jan. 2006 against the business, the address for which matches Fuhr’s California home address on file with a 2004 federal tax lien of $126,467 against Peter and Moira Hutchins-Fuhr.”
Because he failed to do his homework, Jay Nixon was completely unaware that this company was run by a man with a history of tax and financial problems in another state—including an active tax lien against another of his businesses at the time that Nixon announced the project. 

The Wi-Fi Sensors mess—like the Mamtek collapse and the Watch Me Smile fiasco—was a preventable economic development failure that should have been stopped before Nixon ever made the announcement.  But now, thanks to Nixon’s ineptitude, Missourians are stuck with the $1 million tab, and have no new jobs to show for it.

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