UPDATE: So much for the “it went to the wrong address” defense. From the Projo:
However, the litigation and collections manager for Martin County said yesterday that the office sent the bill to the correct address last December after a clerk did a little research and found Carcieri’s current address on Kenyon Avenue.
It is also nice to see the little blog that could get a nice plug in the Palm Beach Newspaper.
Crossposted at DAILYKOS. RI’s 12lth, who helped break the story, has an Islander’s take on it!
UPDATE: ABC 6 and NBC 10 are reporting that Carcieri has cut a check tonight! Projo has the story now:
The matter came to light yesterday in a piece written by Patrick Crowley, the assistant executive director of the National Education Association’s Rhode Island unit, and posted on the political blog www.rifuture.org.
After Republican presidential candidate John McCain had trouble answering a question about how many houses he owned, Crowley wrote that he asked the same question about Republican Governor Carcieri. Crowley wrote that Kempe directed him to the financial statement that Carcieri had filed with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission.
Now the next question: Why didn’t Carcieri list both condo’s on his financial disclosure report?
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Thanks to a comment in an earlier post, some digging has revealed Donald Carcieri has not paid taxes on a Florida condominium since 2005. An official with the Martin’s County Florida Tax Department confirmed this afternoon that tax certificates, or liens, have been placed on the condo at 4540 Sand Pebble Trace, Unit 101, Stuart, Florida. The first lien for back taxes from 2006 is valued at $7,502.73. The second lien for taxes owed in 2007 is valued at $5155.
The owners of record for the property are Donald and Suzanne Carcieri, with an address listed as 5 Pearl Street, East Greenwich. The Martin’s County office was also able to confirm that a second property, Unit 201, is also owned by Donald and Suzanne Carcieri. Taxes are up to date on this property. The mailing address listed for this property is the Governor’s address at 50 Kenyon Rd in East Greenwich. The Governor’s 2007 Yearly Financial Statement does list the condo property, but makes no indication as to whether or not it is one, or two, pieces of property.
An earlier email to the Governor’s office asking for clarification and comment was not returned.
The tax office website has records of the newspaper advertisement they placed in local papers revealing the tax lien. The numbers are different due to the certificate sale process.