May 12, 2008 - 2:28pm
Lautenberg camp disputes tax deduction claim
By Matt FriedmanFrank Lautenberg’s campaign said today that a political blog’s story about the Senator designating his Washington, DC condo as his permanent residence was old news and inaccurate.
The blog claimed that, prior to 2005, Lautenberg had claimed Washington as his primary residence in order to take advantage of the city’s Homestead Tax Rebate, and that he only stopped listing Washington as his “permanent address” in 2005 after reporters started asking questions about the deduction.
But Lautenberg’s campaign today released a letter sent to the Senator in 2005 by the city’s Real Property Tax Administration that took responsibility for the mistake.
“Although you did not apply for the homestead deduction, (the Office of Tax and Revenue) mistakenly applied the deductions to the property when a new system was developed and the data was converted,” wrote Thomas W. Branham, who was then the city’s Real Property Tax Administration’s acting director.
The letter went on to request that Lautenberg cut the city a check for the $691.20 that was mistakenly deducted from his property taxes in 2003, 2004 and part of 2005.
In 2005, the Kansas City Star reported on about two dozen Senators receiving the rebate. In the story, most Senators, including Lautenberg, said they had never applied to receive the rebate. A follow-up story by the Washington Post said that the city was correcting the problem, and said that a Lautenberg aide produced a city tax form in which Lautenberg checked “no” when asked if he should receive the tax break.
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So the story is bogus and been proven wrong long before the Norcross Andrews team decided to try and desperatly exploit it. Funny how ROb never said anything about this when he wasnt running for Senate. And now he has nothing to say about it period
ZIMMER has the real residency P-R-O-B-L-E-M!!
I predict Dick Zimmer will be out of this race by the end of the week because of the fraudulent statements he has made to the press concerning his residency.
He has been telling the press that he lives in Hunterdon County and he commutes to Washington DC for his full-time lobbying business!!
Does anyone really believe that?
It looks like Dr. Murray Sabrin's campaign is exposing Dick Zimmer for the F-R-A-U-D and L-O-S-E-R that he is!!
http://www.politickernj.com/georgeajjan/19578/zimmer-and-lautenberg-don-...
Only NJ residents need to apply!
Frank and Dick and NJ together. The problem is that neither lives in NJ. Is that the problem when you are supposed to represent residents of NJ? Not for Frank and Dick. They are happy together and they live in Washington, DC too.
Dick the Commuter: What a Joke!
Considering his lackluster campaigns in 1996 and 2000 in which Democrat-Lite Zimmer was beaten by real Democrats Torricelli and Holt, hard to believe Dick Zimmer would go more than 5 minutes to work. I want to know how Zimmer is a friend of the taxpayer when he was lobbying for spending more tax money. Perhaps he was lobbying for a high-speed rail line from Lambertville to DC, but somehow I don't think he's that visionary.
The hypocritical Frank
Frank Lautenberg only thinks age is an issue when his opponent is older than him.
Now that he's in his 80's, it's okay to run even though it's obvious he's not up to the job.
Frank Lautenberg won't debate, because he knows Rob Andrews will hand him his head.
Frank Lautenberg doesn't really live in New Jersey. His denial is just that, a denial.
No Democrat much cares if he wins or loses because of his massive ego and out-of-touch, above-it-all way he approaches public office.
Vote Column - All the way!
Frank Lives in NJ, get over it.
The Senator lives in NJ, has always lived in NJ, and will always live in NJ. He maintains a residence in D.C just like most of the Senate so he can be there to vote, unlike Rob Andrews who seems to have forgotten that part of his job.