Tuesday, October 09, 2012

A Taxing Pattern for John Macco?

During the Republican primary for the 30th state Senate district Ray Suennen unsuccessfully ran against John Macco.  During that primary Suennen's campaign was particularly noticeable for how directly he challenged Macco on the basis of his court case history. Republican Ray Suennen was quite aggressive in calling out Macco for the various court cases.  Suennen commented that "this is not 'leadership' and are the type of actions that taxpayers are fed up with."

While Ray Suennen aggressively questioned John Macco's qualifications based on all of his court cases, it seemed that extra attention was paid to a tax warrant case filed against Macco in 2000.  Suennen reportedly brought up this issue at conservative candidate forums. Apparently someone thought that it was important enough to anonymously send the case information to right wing radio host Jerry Bader.  Bader read listener emails that were critical of Macco for having the tax warrant case. He also read a written Macco response on the air and said that the public deserved a more complete answer.

Macco went on the Jerry Bader show to give an explanation about the various court cases that have been filed against him.  I've already mentioned some of his lame responses regarding the civil cases against him.  But his responses to the tax warrant case were not much better.  He  admitted that he "missed one" and that "it was pure ignorance" and a "simple mistake".  Whatever brand of mistake it was, it probably isn't the type that is common among the voters of the 30th District.

If we are expected to believe that Macco's  tax warrant case was just a "simple mistake" then we should also expect that he hasn't had any similar tax related issues since then.  However today One Wisconsin Now released research that suggests a pattern that has extended well beyond Macco's 2000 tax warrant case.
Over the last fifteen years, Macco has been late paying his local property taxes eight times, including settling his 2007 tax bill over one year late. The state Department of Revenue was also forced to file a tax warrant against Macco for almost $3,500 in unpaid income taxes.
One Wisconsin Now's review of local property tax records found that Macco failed to pay his property taxes on time for tax years 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008. In fact, Macco failed to pay his 2007 taxes, due January 31st of 2008, until March 2009, racking up nearly $1,100 in interest and penalties on the overdue bill.
Again, when you combine all of these things it appears much less like a "simple mistake" and much more like a disturbing pattern of behavior.  John Macco should give a complete and total explanation to the voters of the 30th District.  In fact he should go above and beyond that and release 10 years of his full state income tax information for both himself personally and for his business. Given the many bipartisan questions that have been raised on this subject, voters should be entitled to full and complete disclosure.

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