Far from being a pauper, Sesame Workshop, the company that produces the beloved children’s television program that has become an unlikely point of partisan bickering in the presidential campaign, has put away more than $100 million in investments, including more than $20 million in hedge funds and $9.7 million in a private equity fund.
PBS, the partially publicly funded network that broadcasts “Sesame Street” and its marquee character Big Bird, has come under fire from Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who says the government cannot afford to support it anymore. President Obama has leapt to Big Bird’s defense on the stump and in campaign ads.
But according to its 2010 tax returns, the nonprofit Sesame Workshophad so much untaxed earnings from royalties, video sales and merchandising that it had $110 million in investments, including the hedge fund and private equity fund. Big Bird also has some offshore nest eggs. At least some of the income from Sesame Workshop’s hedge-fund investments, which would have been taxable if derived from domestic funds, goes untaxed because it was generated by offshore affiliates of such funds.
4 comments:
Big Bird has so much money he's also invested in the Grand Caymann's, at least he's not stupid.
And he's never been so famous.
Romney could have done a better job of getting this information out during the debate. However, he would have risked spotlighting his own tax situation.
Sounds to me like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, like other industries in the US, can stand on their own and no longer need to be attached to the taxpayer's teat.
They don't need taxpayer dollars. They make millions weekly on items for sale for kids.
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