This morning, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that nineteen state legislators are delinquent on their federal and state income taxes.
Nineteen members of the state Legislature have failed to pay state and federal income taxes, some of them dating back to 2002, according to a Georgia Department of Revenue report given recently to legislative leaders.The report on the alleged tax dodgers, with names and Social Security numbers redacted, has been forwarded to Republican and Democratic leaders of the state House of Representatives and Senate.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “19 Georgia lawmakers behind on taxes, state report says” February 26, 2009
Unfortunately for the public, the AJC doesn’t publish the names of the offending Georgia General Assembly members; and I’m tempted to file an open records request with the Georgia Dept. of Revenue to get those names.
But until then, who do you think might owe the government some money and more importantly, what should happened to them?
{ 20 comments }
Please file the open records request and publish the names.
What elephant? I don’t see an elephant in the room.
Sounds like Obama won’t run out of potential cabinet nominees.
Oath taken by all Reps upon being sworn in on the first day of session:
“I further swear or affirm that I am no the holder of any unaccounted for public money due this state or any political subdivision or authority thereof…”
If we can turn a blind eye to this part of their oaths, what’s to say we can’t turn a blind eye to the “support the Constitution…” parts?
I’m betting there will be more D’s than R’s. What will the split be?
A very poor example of leadership IMHO.
Poor example, yes. The current head of the IRS is a tax delinquent, though, so that poor example goes all the way up the chain.
Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah, running for Lt Gov) has posted on twitter (@Johnson4Georgia) that ‘For the record, I paid my taxes.’
No other comments from GA politicos regarding this issue so far, at least none that I am aware of.
You bet there will be more Ds than Rs but like Jeff said what can you say when this is accepted behavior in THE GOLDEN BOY’S Cabinent….
The AJC doesn’t have the names. In the Senate Ethics Committee yesterday, Chairman Eric Johnson explained that the revenooers don’t release names until the cases have been settled. Even he doesn’t know who the miscreants are.
Imagine that
More explanation on why the AJC doesn’t have the names
http://lucididiocyblog2.blogspot.com/2009/02/legislators-not-paying-their-taxes-why.html
NOTE: Lots of new names, I think the noteriety of SB31 really helped.
Another example of how far eithics and propriety have fallen in what should be important to leaders of gov’t and commerce.
Wonder what would happen if the IRS was required to audit every member of the US Congress and all state legislators? If you had a tax problem with the IRS, wonder what would happen if you partitioned a court to require this audit?
Well the IRS doesn’t have authority to do specifically ordered audits (I forget what the legal term is).
Well the IRS doesn’t have authority to do specifically ordered audits (I forget what the legal term is).
I think the legal term was “Bill Clinton ordered them” in the 1990s.
mr. bonevillejacket,
“If we can turn a blind eye to this part of their oaths, what’s to say we can’t turn a blind eye to the “support the Constitution…” parts?”
i believe they already do. i had a long conversation with the chairman of a powerful state house committee the day they took their oaths again this session, and pointed out a specific — and big — area where they were violating that part of their oath. i explained in detail how this could be rectified. the response was along the lines of, “we don’t do that now, i don’t see how we could start doing that,” instead of the logical response (after just having taken that oath), which would be, “since the constitution requires us to do that, what would be the best way to start doing that?”
so why is anyone surprised that they owe back taxes? who cares about their oaths, right?
And yet, these same folks go into church every Sunday and rail about the gays and the abortions…bunch of hypocrites.
mr. simon,
i’m not disagreeing with you about that. those are some of the issues that i have in common with this particular legislator, but he seems to miss the point that he took an oath which means something very particular in our holy book. and it’s therefore very dangerous to violate that oath — very serious consequences. i wish i could get that into his head.
“I think the legal term was “Bill Clinton ordered them” in the 1990s.”
The President does not have that type of oversight of the IRS.
It is impossible for the President to order IRS audits. I don’t remember when but the Commonwealth Club interviewed the head of the IRS under Clinton and he even said it was impossible.
But hey, believe what you want.
Comments on this entry are closed.