Nothing against rich guys running for office. After all, they practically own the political system.
Chris Abele, though, simply does not have his act together. Yesterday I got an big Abele campaign ad boasting that Chris would rescue the county by freezing the budget of the county executive’s office and cutting back on county cell phones.
Golly. Won’t that accomplish a lot! Those pennies, combined with several hundred million dollars more, and the county’s problems will be solved!
Today the JS reported that Abele hasn’t paid state income tax for at least four years (note to paper: invoking Uncle Sam when discussing state taxes is a federalism error).
The Abele campaign sounds absolutely lame trying to explain it away:
“Chris Abele has paid the taxes he’s owed,” said Abele campaign aide Brandon Lorenz, who confirmed that the candidate also had no federal tax liability last year.
Lorenz noted that Abele, the son of a co-founder of the medical equipment company Boston Scientific, draws no regular salary from his family foundation, makes significant personal donations to charity and pays a five-figure property tax bill.
So just what is the Argosy Foundation’s compensation structure for Abele? That “no regular salary” statement does not rule out a hefty paycheck in some tax-avoiding form or another.
Lorenz goes on to make matters worse by making clear just what a fancy schmancy house Abele calls home:
As for Abele, his campaign staffer emphasized that the first-time candidate paid more than $64,000 in property taxes last year.
Abele bought his N. Lake Drive digs for $2.6 million in 2005, according to the paper.
The decision is finally made: Jim Sullivan for county executive.