Patterico's Pontifications

10/29/2007

Political Donations of Tax Scofflaws in California

Filed under: 2008 Election,Miscellaneous,Politics — Justin Levine @ 9:23 pm



[guest post by Justin Levine]

For those of you who don’t know, the state of California posts a list of everyone who hasn’t paid their state taxes when their total bill is over $100,000.

Dionne Warwick and O.J. Simpson each owe the Golden State well over $1-million. In the case of Simpson, it will simply be murder for the state to try and collect its rightful tax money from him. (Badda-bing! Take my wife…please! Hey folks, I’m here all night.)

Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to research which of the California tax scofflaws who owe at least $1-million have donated to political campaigns recently.

Here is what I have come up with so far. [Keep in mind, that I have only researched the people on the list that owe at least $1-million or more. Also, there were some other common names on the list that came up on political donation reports. However, I left them out of my research here unless I could be very confident that they were one and the same individuals on both the political donation and California taxpayer’s list.]

Listed in order of how much they owe California –

Leon E. Richartz Currently owes CA $4,461,301.30.

10/25/1994 $2,000 Democratic Executive Cmte of Florida
4/6/1994 $1,000 Feinstein, Dianne
4/6/1994 $1,000 Feinstein, Dianne
5/9/1996 $1,000 Graham, Bob
8/25/1995 $1,000 Clinton, Bill
10/10/1995 $1,000 Johnson, Tim

David C. Hayden Currently owes CA $2,737,496.86.

4/13/2000 $3,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte
6/15/1999 $1,000 Lieberman, Joe
4/13/2000 $1,000 Clinton, Hillary Rodham
4/13/2000 $1,000 Clinton, Hillary Rodham
5/10/2000 $50,000 DNC/Non-Federal Individual
5/10/2000 $50,000 DNC/Non-Federal Individual
8/10/1999 $20,000 DNC Services Corp
3/31/2000 $20,000 DNC Services Corp
12/31/1999 $5,000 Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte
3/31/2000 $5,000 DNC/Non-Federal Individual
12/22/1999 $1,000 Kerry, John
12/22/1999 $1,000 Kerry, John

Robert J. Mcnulty Currently owes CA $2,410,707.82.

3/5/2004 $500 Feinstein, Dianne

William & Patricia Johnson currently owe CA $2,057,367.10

9/25/2004 $1,500 Issa, Darrell
11/18/2005 $500 Issa, Darrell
9/18/2002 $500 Bono, Mary

(* Note, the Johnsons are apparently jointly responsible for the taxes, but the political donations here were made in Patricia Johnson’s name alone.)

Gilbert & Rhonda Crisp currently owe CA $1,529,263.24

6/14/1994 $200 Radanovich, George (R)

(* Note, the Crisps are apparently jointly responsible for the taxes, but the political donations here were made in Rhonda Crisp’s name alone.)

Leroy L Carver III Currently owes CA $1,378,125.67

8/31/2000 $1,000 National Republican Senatorial Cmte
8/21/2007 $100 Romney, Mitt

Togo & Jean Tanaka Currently owe CA $1,269,925.88

12/28/1993 $500 Sugiyama, Glenn T. (D)

(* Note, the Tanakas are apparently jointly responsible for the taxes, but the political donations here were made in Togo Tanaka’s name alone.)

Donald L. Young Currently owes CA $1,201,538.66

9/22/1998 $1,000 Fong, Matt (R)

Minh T. Tran Currently owes CA $1,131,454.84

3/22/2002 $300 Americans for a Republican Majority

So there ya have it folks. If any of you wish to take the time to research those who owe California under $1-million (but still over $100,000), be my guest.

Interesting to note that the two biggest individual tax scofflaws on this list happen to contribute heavily to national Democratic candidates. However, you obviously can’t conclude anything from that other than as an amusing anecdote. As you can see, the list is split between 5 Republican donors and 4 Democratic donors. That’s about as bipartisan an almost-quasi-scandal as you can get. (Also as an interesting anecdote, please note that the only one on the list who has donated to the current campaign cycle thus far happened to give money to Republican Mitt Romney.)

8 Responses to “Political Donations of Tax Scofflaws in California”

  1. It could be as simple as a certain percent of the population is tax scofflaws and certain population donates to campaigns. And the cross-cut means nothing in terms of correlation.

    Also note that several of the donations are well in the past, whereas the tax bills are current.

    TCO (79dafb)

  2. TCO – It could be as simple as a certain percent of the population is tax scofflaws and certain population donates to campaigns. And the cross-cut means nothing in terms of correlation.

    Ummm…Isn’t that what I clearly implied in my last paragraph? Maybe you stopped reading before the end.

    Also – the tax bills are currently outstanding, but that is not to say that they are ‘current’. Many of these are surely outstanding debts from years past. (Are you suggesting that O.J. Simpson made enough income in California the this past tax year such that he has ove a $1-million liability from the 2006 tax year?? If so, I’m sure the family of Ron Goldman would be interested to know that.)

    Sorry, but I just don’t get your comment.

    Justin Levine (ab0a31)

  3. Justine: I read that part. I just wanted to state it in a more statistically explicit manner. I thought there was an insight. In the concept of two factors expressing in a population and independance.

    On the currency of the taxes, agreed many will be for several years or for years in the past. I guess the relevant thing is that we don’t know how close the dates coincide. One of the donations is in 1994 leaving at least the possibility of a 13 year gap in the two expressed behaviours.

    TCO (79dafb)

  4. If you want, I could move from tedious issue analysis back to cursing. If Pat allows that.

    P.s. I’m just now getting used to all the guest posts. I read fast and tend to skip over the author, assuming it was Pat.

    TCO (79dafb)

  5. I thought this was very interesting, Justin. I’m old-fashioned enough that it’s hard to grasp that people could give away money by political contributions when they haven’t paid their bills. I’m not naive – it could be a Marc Rich thing – but it doesn’t make it right.

    DRJ (5c60fb)

  6. Oh dear the annual donation to the state for being allowed to be a property owner, and hold the title Esquire as well!

    Well some folks have figured out that once every 7 years they can actually negotiate this “annual rental” to a level that is probably more realistic! And they do, all across the country on a rather regular basis. Most counties are rather easy to phuk on the issue and since it all happens behind closed doors… all the better for both parties.

    I’m not advocating such, just reporting what I’ve observed in my little county over the last 40 years is all.

    TC (1cf350)

  7. This would be more interesting if any of those contributions were, ah, current, besides the $100 to Mitt Romney.

    chaos (9c54c6)

  8. Interesting, especially since the Dems are usually into high taxes and income redistribution…as long as it’s your income and not theirs?

    Patricia (aaa977)


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