ICYMI: Ron Johnson comes under criticism over purchase of private plane by his adult children [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson comes under criticism over purchase of private plane by his adult children
By Daniel Bice
October 13, 2022

• Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has come under plenty of criticism for voting for then-President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax plan.

• There was the tax break for small businesses and other so-called pass-through entities that Johnson got inserted in the bill, benefiting two of his biggest donors and Johnson himself.

• Now here comes a new one. Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Johnson’s Democratic opponent, is going after Johnson for a provision in the Trump tax plan that allows those buying private jets to write off the full amount of their new plane’s cost on their tax return.

• This summer, Howard Air LLC, an Oshkosh firm owned by Johnson’s adult children, purchased a Pilatus PC-24, which is valued at $12 million. Johnson’s son Ben and Johnson’s wife Jane are listed as managers of the company in corporate records.

• In addition, Howard Air also bought a Pilatus PC-12 in 2019 — more than a year after the Trump tax plan passed — and an Embraer EMB-505 Phenom 300 a year later.

• Under the Trump tax plan, Johnson’s family members may be eligible to write off the cost of those planes. Howard Air owns a total of three single-pilot, business jets.

• “Ron Johnson has no problem raising taxes on working people after delivering a tax cut for billionaires as long as his family can still afford yet another luxury plane to add to their fleet,” said Maddy McDaniel, spokeswoman for Barnes.

• “Maybe if he stopped complaining about only doubling his wealth while in office, he’d notice how painfully out of touch he is with working Wisconsinites who are begging him to stop attacking Social Security and Medicare.”

• Howard Air became an issue in 2020 when Johnson decided to start using a private plane owned by his children’s company to travel between Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

• Federal flight records show Johnson took the private plane on 14 roundtrips between Appleton International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in 2020.

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