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Mike White, the chairman and owner of Rite-Hite, a major Milwaukee manufacturer of industrial equipment, wanted to be sure his employees understood what he feels is at stake in the presidential election.

In an email sent this week to employees, White said his workers "should understand the personal consequences to them of having our tax rates increase dramatically if President Obama is re-elected, forcing taxpayers to fund President Obama's future deficits and social programs (including Obamacare), which require bigger government."

The email, which may conflict with state election law, stunned some employees. One employee said he felt threatened by the email. "It's a good company, but for this to come out, it's absurd," said the employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from management.

The employee said even supervisors were surprised by the tone of the email. "Many were really disappointed to see this," the employee said.

The email doesn't mention GOP candidate Mitt Romney by name, but the employee said workers felt it was implicit that they were being encouraged to vote for him.

The firm employs an estimated 1,400 people worldwide.

In his email, White said neither he nor the company wanted to "prejudice any employee for their political views and totally respect your right to vote as you choose. I am simply trying to present the facts as I know them and to protect the business you have helped build! Please think carefully about your vote on Nov. 6."

White did not return several calls and an email requesting comment. He is a trustee for the Village of River Hills and serves on the Summerfest board and the Concordia University Wisconsin Foundation board, among others. He is a member of the board of directors for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, an organization that "advances the public interest in the rule of law, individual liberty, constitutional government, and a robust civil society."

The institute is led by Rick Esenberg, an adjunct law professor at the Marquette University Law School and former general counsel for Rite-Hite. Esenberg also is a community columnist for the Journal Sentinel.

State law may prohibit email such as the one White sent to employees. The law states: "No employer or agent of an employer may distribute to any employee printed matter containing any threat, notice or information that if a particular ticket of a political party or organization or candidate is elected or any referendum question is adopted or rejected, work in the employer's place or establishment will cease, in whole or in part, or the place or establishment will be closed, or the salaries or wages of the employees will be reduced, or other threats intended to influence the political opinions or actions of the employees."

A spokesman for the Government Accountability Board said enforcement of that part of state law was the responsibility of the local district attorney's office. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

White wrote to employees that his company is an S corporation for tax purposes. An S corporation is a company that elects to pass corporate income, losses, deductions and credit through to its shareholders for federal tax purposes.

In his email to workers, White said the firm's retirement savings program contributions were based on after-tax profits.

"The tax rate we pay is not 17%, as Warren Buffett would have you believe; with state taxes it is roughly 45%. President Obama has announced that our planned tax rate would increase to roughly 65%, reducing our after tax income by 36% and dramatically reducing, if not eliminating, your and my RSP contributions."

As a result, White said the company's profits would not be reinvested. Instead, he wrote, "the money will be sent into the abyss that is Washington, D.C. So, on top of the burden of having your personal taxes increase dramatically, which they will, your RSP contributions and healthy retirement are also at risk, all for the sake of maintaining an oversized government that borrows 42% of every dollar it spends."

John Vitek, a Milwaukee tax lawyer, said it was possible that the company's combined tax rate would be near 45%. "But I don't know where the 65% is coming from," he said.

And while White was critical of President Barack Obama's tax policies, government records indicate his firm was awarded a grant of $26,471 in economic stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

White also wrote that Obama's re-election means there is a "good chance of losing Rite-Hite insurance and being put into Obamacare."

White explained that employers can continue their existing insurance plans or "pay a penalty and have employees go into the Government Plan. Our plan costs much more per family than the penalty and hence the possible competitive need to drop the Rite-Hite Health Plan. Every opportunity to make up for lost profits to taxes will have to be re-evaluated."