DI Column Up: Giraldo Rosales’ Property Taxes and Residency
A few days ago, an anonymous commenter on Illini Pundit started hyping the fact that Giraldo Rosales, a Champaign City Council Member has not paid his property taxes. Additionally he hasn’t actually lived in Champaign for almost 2 years. There were Republicans who seemed to be hyping this to the DI and News Gazette.
Today, scooping the News-Gazette on the story, the Daily Illini wrote a news story to go along with my column on the issue. In short, the Rosales’ property tax problem is a non-issue. So is the residency.
I reviewed court records, tax records, voting records, building permit records, and spoke to about a half-dozen people. Anyone who wanted to know about the abatement could have made one phone call. One can criticize Rosales for waiting until September to file for the abatement (1 month before his late taxes became public) for making a bad PR move. However, the opinion of the Board of Review and Treasurer is not a binding requirement. That is why I used the word opinion. Illini Pundit (or more specifically Gordon Hulten) my try to make an issue here and parse words or why he waited, but I talk to Ruth Wyman (Rosales’ attorney on the matter) and I’m satisfied. Maybe he could of done things better, but legally his fine. Now, if the issue is still open when he files for re-election in December, that could be a problem, but his attorney said if the abatement isn’t ruled on by October 26th, they’ll just pay the bill and get a refund. Oct. 26 is the day that the county formally goes to court and declares a property tax payer in default.
Yes, he hasn’t been in his house for over 2 years, but the delays are legitimate. He has a currently open building permit that was filed in mid-September for even more work. Tens of thousands of dollars have been spent. The house that’s currently vacant is 6000 sq. ft and pretty damn nice. There are no liens on the property of note. Would you live in a 2000 sq. ft. rental house in Urbana and leave your 6000 sq. ft. house vacant without a really good reason? Neither would I.
Instead of trying to make mountains out of molehills, I got a crazy idea…. let’s talk and campaign on issues instead.
UPDATE: See also Kiyoshi’s comments on the matter.
UPDATE 2: Congratulations to the News-Gazette for getting the story 2 days after we got it.
Related Posts:
