It’s not like this guy has a snowball chance in Hell of winning anyway, but with stuff like this coming up, makes you wonder;
Sen. Gordon Howie is behind by at least $56,863 in property taxes due for 2008 and 2009. That amount will jump to $86,915 if Howie can’t meet the next payment date by the end of October. And the amount is growing because of interest assessed to unpaid bills.
Then there is this;
Howie is the unofficial tea party candidate, running a campaign against taxes and spending. Last year, he was the prime sponsor of a bill that would have raised the state sales tax from 4 percent to 6 percent. The bill, which failed, called for using the increases in sales taxes to lower property taxes statewide, an effort that some questioned because of Howie’s profession.
It kinda sounds like Gordon is ‘conveniently’ against property taxes because he owes so much, but doesn’t have a problem with raising regressive taxes on the working poor. Some of my teabagger friends have asked me to support Gordon. Sorry, if there is one thing I can’t stand in a politician, it is hypocrisy.
No itelligent person could possibly toss their support behind this charlatan. It is painfully obvious the only reason he wanted to raise sales taxes is for personal financial benefit… because if the net result to the state coffers is the same, then land owners would directly benefit – and the more land you own, the more you benefit.
As to his tax struggles, if you can’t manage your business well enough to pay your taxes on time and without suffering massive penalties, then you are a poor manager. It is even worse when you consider he loaned himself money for his campaign which could have went towards his tax bill.
If the members of the Tea Party movement still defend this phony, then they are even more ignorant than I originally thought and it proves they don’t really care about taxes or debt… merely about their candidates being elected.
The man is a nutjob who seems to believe that the governor of South Dakota can kick God out of the state if he wants.
He’s delusional and a giant hypocrite, as Costner pointed out, but I suspect that makes him blend right in with the rest of the tea party.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. The funny part is I can’t believe this is the best guy they could come up with.
If you have an hour to kill, yah gotta watch his Argus interview. He is all over the map, and ironically has a sense of humor about it. He thinks SD teachers are underpaid (they are) but doesn’t want to pay them more. Huh?
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100526/NEWS/5260313/-1/sdpolitics
Take a look at http://www.newsweek.com for the article, “Why Politicians Are More Likely To Be Hypocrites.”
Are you a bunch of crazies or what? Check out and see what Mr. Howie has already paid in property tax the past years before 2008 and 2009. It is like hundreds of thousands of dollars! All paid-give him a break! Over his business life time it is in the millions!
The Tea Party’s core message that we are on an unsustainable path of an overreaching and ever-growing Government that needs to be reversed is still a valid one. It’s just too bad that guys like this are the ones who are claiming to be the answer.
Ironically, he will now get more publicity that he could’ve possibly purchased and will be held up nationally as a negative example as to why that message should be ignored.
mb: “Are you a bunch of crazies or what? Check out and see what Mr. Howie has already paid in property tax the past years before 2008 and 2009. It is like hundreds of thousands of dollars! All paid-give him a break! Over his business life time it is in the millions!”
Wait a second… so you are suggesting we give him a free pass because he actually paid his taxes in 2008 and 2009? Nope – sorry, that is a very pathetic excuse.
I’ve paid my property taxes and income taxes on time every single year but that doesn’t make me special… it mearly means I follow the friggin’ law and I don’t make investments or financial decisions which preclude me from being able to pay those taxes.
If Howie’s margins are that small that he can’t even pay the taxes on the development land he owns then he shouldn’t be buying land and instead should be selling it before the taxes are due rather than after.
Again, if he can’t properly manage his business then he has no business running the government. His entire message has been about fiscal restraint and lower taxes, but the reality is he can’t even balance his own books much less those of an entire state.
Spot on, Costner.
Yeah, why get on Howie about it, the Jamison’s have been pulling this practice for a couple of years and we still let Greggo sit on the city council.
Pretty sure the Jamison’s pay their taxes.
Sy- You don’t remember that story last year how they were behind on their property taxes?
http://www.southdacola.com/blog/2009/03/ah-yeah-sure-you-betcha-whatever-greg/
Didn’t see that one, but there’s probably more smoke there than fire. I’d guess that 100K tab was paid up before your story even came out. One lot sold in Prairie Hills will easily cover that.
I’m not a developer, but I know the game. You buy land, hold it as long as you can (somewhat short term if you’ve borrowed for it) and when the time is right you dump a pile of cash in to get roads, sidewalks, uilities, streetlights and any other amenities you want in. The City dictates a certain level of what you have to do through your favorite process: Code enforcement.
You need all that in place before you can even sell the first lot. And I’m sure this will bring a smile to your face, but I’d bet a paycheck that the City probably told Jamison’s Company Site 2 something like: “okay, you’ve done X, Y and Z, but we won’t approve your app until you do Q, U, &, % and we’d also like 6 more V’s. And back to the drawing board and back to your checkbook you go. Like you’ve pointed out, the system itself is broken and it hits everyone square in the nads from time to time, not just Plaintiff Guy.
All those contractors do their work and if they aren’t paid in 120 days they file a mechanics lein and again, you can’t sell squat. It’s pretty common for a developer to slow pay the least squeaky wheel and many times that’s the taxman, who’s bureaucracy prevents them from acting like a “normal” business.
That being said, at any given moment you can find just about anyone who owns land behind on their taxes. They want half in June and the other half in October, but a lot of people simply pay the whole tab whenever they have the cash, even if that spills over into the next year.
Not saying it’s right, that’s just how it is.
I know all that, I just think it is a bit hypocritical for a POLITICIAN to not being paying their taxes. It cost Daschle a job.
Perhaps he read the Constitution – Article 1 Section 10 where it says payment of debts in the state are only valid if the money is paid in the only authorized currenct gold and silver. The state has the power but not the authority to collect property tax making your property not really yours. Pure extorsion. Daschle too, now that was income tax – He knew he didn’t have to pay per the law but he was caught between a rock and a hard place to expose that one. Afterall he’s friends with the federal reserve. They don’t want the slaves to know there is no law outside of corporate tax collection (taxes on labor.) The struggle continues. Howie is a statesmen. He defends your 4th Amendment rights and is one of the little guys. we all have problems but at least he’s not a banker and not a mason.