How the Vanderbilt Family and the Biltmore Estate Shaft the North Carolina Taxpayer
How the Vanderbilt Family and the Biltmore Estate Shaft the North Carolina Taxpayer
How can the Biltmore get special tax deductions to maintain the wealth that was created through ruthless and inhumane business practices…?
The Biltmore Estate provides an amazing journey back in time, to the Gilded Age of opulence, American greed and inhumane profits of a deadly employer. The largest privately owned home in America, built from the riches of the Vanderbilt family, primarily through the ruthless business practices and the inhumane work conditions of railroad workers supported byCornelius Vanderbilt, his son William H. Vanderbilt and the third generation Vanderbilt’s which includes George Vanderbilt, the builder of the Biltmore Estate, which was finished in 1895. Between 1890 and 1917, 230,000 railroad workers died due to the long work hours and dangerous work conditions. The years prior to 1890 are even worse. You could say that the Biltmore was built, with blood money.
The Biltmore is also the only Vanderbilt home that continues to be owned by the originating family. All the other Vanderbilt family Gilded Age mega-mansions are government or foundation owned; the Florham, the Hyde Park, the Eagles Nest, Rough Point, Marble House and the Breakers. This is also true of other American mega-mansions like the William Randolph Hearst Castle of San Simeon, California. So how can a family hold onto five generations of legacy wealth in a country where no person is a king or a queen with wealth that lives forever?
The highest estate tax rate is currently 40% for the wealthiest Americans who die with a fortune. But, tax professionals have strategies that allow the richest Americans to circumvent the tax rates that are there to stop inequality from growing so high that we become a nation of haves and have-nots; kings, queens and peasants. Bill Cecil Sr. died in 2017 and passed on the business to his son and daughter, Bill Cecil Jr. and Dini Pickering, who have taken over seemingly without a change in assets – a tax free transition? Clearly, Bill Cecil Sr. didn’t sign the Giving Pledge, founded by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, pledging to give the majority of their wealth to charities to express their loyalty to the United States.
Why does America glorify the robber barons of yesteryear and today? Much like the Confederate statues that glorified those who fought for inhuman profits, so do the decadent buildings that glorify robber barons of the past who lead deadly union-busting battles and forced workers to endure dangerous working conditions that killed hundreds of thousands of industrial age workers and left families in financial hardship; Carnegie Hall, the Morgan Library, the Rockefeller Center, Vanderbilt University and the Biltmore Estate.
If we are going to glorify someone, shouldn’t it be someone who moved morals and democracy forward, helping America and all Americans -- like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and so many other lessor knowns?
For the past forty years, Republican-pushed pro-businesspolicies have removed or modified regulations for media, finance, taxes, bankruptcy, housing, etc., while regular Americans just seem to sit back and allow the robber barons of today to kill small businesses, reduce wages, cut the wealthy’staxes, increase middleclass taxes, create estate tax loopholes and increase prices as they consolidate the competition in one industry after the next. We need to stop enabling the Red State robber barons of today and stop the glorification of the robber barons of the past.
February 9, 1859, The New York Times first used the term “Robber Baron” to describe Cornelius Vanderbilt, a ruthless steamship and railroad tycoon who became the richest man in America until his death in 1877. His son, William H. Vanderbilt acquired his father’s fortune, doubled the family’s wealth and was the richest man in America until his death in 1885. Although William H. appointed his first son, Cornelius II, to run the family business, all sons received money and it was his youngest son, George Vanderbilt who had the vision to build the spectacular Biltmore Estate using money created by the ruthless and inhumane operations of the Vanderbilt robber baron family.
Today, we glorify the Vanderbilt, Cecil owned, home as we pay a sizable fee to visit, $300 a year, which helps to maintain the riches of the fifth generation of descendants of the late Bill Cecil Sr. He was the son of Cornelia Vanderbilt Cecil, grandson of George Washington Vanderbilt II, great grandson of William H. Vanderbilt and the great-great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, “The Commodore”. Five generations of legacy wealth that has somehow survived the estate taxes of each generation, especially those of 2017, which maintains their massive and disgusting central Asheville estate; a shared country estate for the super-rich who enjoy the best of Asheville, who never have to share a hiking trail with regular folk.
The Biltmore family estate and lands are valued at $360 million, by the Buncombe Assessor, which includes thousands of acres of prime central property, Biltmore Forest adjacent, of which most acres are valued at $27 thousand apiece. In 2024, the Biltmore will be paying about $943 thousand in property taxes. This is significantly less than what they could pay if they didn’t have a basket of reductions that reduce their tax burden by at least $2 million a year -- probably much more.
Property owners in Asheville aren’t getting any special reductions to their tax bills, so how can the Biltmore get special tax deductions to maintain the wealth that was created through ruthless and inhumane business practices and working conditions that killed thousands of workers back in the day when robber baron’s didn’t care about employee wellbeing? It’s called the North Carolina, Present Use Value (PUV) program that allows farmers to reduce taxes at a time when making it as a farmer is as difficult as ever. But, since the Biltmore grows sunflowers, lettuce and trees and raise beef, chickens and goats, they get to only pay tax on 38% of their property. In Buncombe County, 65% of the PUV tax reductions are those that are given to the Biltmore – so much for the Farmers.
The Cecil family’s Biltmore group owns the heartland of Asheville, about 22% of the general Asheville area. But, they’re not technically in the City of Asheville and don’t pay Asheville’s City and School Property Tax, with the exception of a small number of acres. It seems their property values are reduced, probably because they’re not technically in Asheville, although they’re adjacent to the Biltmore Forest’s million dollar acreage. The Cecil’s also enjoy about a $2 million tax reduction, primarily due to receiving 2/3 of the Buncombe County PUV program tax reductions, meant for struggling farmers, and also because they don’t pay the Asheville Property Tax.
But, if you enjoy opulence and want to hike in the magnificent Asheville heartland, It’s $300 a year for Asheville residents --but at least you’re not required to wear a Polo outfit and Maison Margiela sneakers.
Part two of this story to follow based on the results of the Public Information Request pending from the Buncombe County Assessors office.
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