Carnahans respond to GOP blowback over brother's stimulus money
ST. LOUIS -- The campaigning Carnahan siblings have struck back against GOP complaints that they played a role in helping their younger brother land stimulus cash.
Tom Carnahan's St. Louis-based firm, Wind Capital Group, was awarded $107 million in stimulus funds to aid a wind farm in far northwest Missouri.
Predictably, Missouri Republicans have accused Carnahan of treading on his name to get the money, a claim the Carnahans deny.
"This is just more of the same as Congressman Blunt and his friends try to distract from his 14-year record of waste, corruption, and sticking it to the middle class that has given billions of taxpayer dollars to Big Oil companies who ship our jobs overseas," said Linden Zakula, a spokesman for Democrat Robin Carnahan's Senate campaign. "They are attacking a Missouri company's use of a tax credit that Congressman Blunt has voted to extend four separate times."
Zakula refers to the production tax credit, which is available to renewable energy firms like Tom Carnahan's. But it was the stimulus bill -- that Blunt opposed -- that gave eligible companies the option of taking the money in the form of a cash grant, instead of tax credits.
The campaign of Robin Carnahan's other brother, U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, offers a similar argument against Republican criticism.
"This latest, baseless attack is a complete lie and it is exactly what voters are tired of - the politics of division and misinformation," said Angela Guyadeen, communications director for Russ Carnahan's campaign. "Russ Carnahan played absolutely no role in Wind Capital's application for tax credits available to any qualified producer. Anyone who wants this credit must apply and quality for it through an independent process."
Again, it's not a credit -- it is a payment in "lieu of tax credits" for up to 30 percent of the cost of an renewable energy property. But Guyadeen is correct that the benefit is widely available -- more than 1,100 companies have qualified for funding in the same program, which has, according to the Treasury Department, has distributed $5.2 billion since last year.
Posted in Political-fix on Tuesday, September 21, 2010 2:51 pm Updated: 12:10 am. | Tags: Mosen, Carnahan Family, Robin Carnahan, Russ Carnahan, Wind Capital Group, American Recovery And Reinvestment Act, Linden Zakula, Angela Guyadeen, Renewable Energy Firms
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