Did Chip Wood "Forget" Or "Choose Not" To Pay His Website Bill?

Updated: See below.

Uh oh! We know that Republican County Assessor candidate Chip Wood didn't pay his property taxes. He first claimed that he didn't know about them, then he claimed that he chose not to pay them. But now it looks like he might not have paid the bill for his website either! Here's the screenshot from www.chipwoodforassessor.com, which is apparently now suspended!



In stark contrast, the website of Jake Zimmerman, who does pay his taxes, is working just fine.

By the way, aside from this blog and Show Me Progress, no one has reported on Wood's blatantly conflicting statements. Naturally, the mainstream media completely missed it.

Update: Seems like the best answer is that Chip Wood forgot to pay, since his website is now back up. Nice of him to get around to paying his bills.

Chip Wood's Conflicting Stories About Why He Didn't Pay Taxes

Yesterday, I noted how the Republican running to be in charge of property taxes does not even pay his own property taxes. In the original article reporting this, here's what Republican Chip Wood had to say:

The St. Louis City Collector of Revenue confirms that L.K. “Chip” Wood owes $12,458.56 for two years of unpaid property tax, penalties and interest — on the L.K. Wood real estate office at 5600 Hampton Avenue. “I guess the company didn’t have the money to make the payments,” Wood said Tuesday. “I apologize. It’s an oversight. I didn’t know where we stood with that until you just called me."

So he first claimed that he didn't know about it until he was called and that it was "an oversight." However, in the Post-Dispatch story yesterday, his story was quite different:

As for the city bill, Wood said his company had financial problems in December, when he decided to defer the taxes.

"We ran out of cash," Wood said. "Times are tough. We were caught flat-footed and had to make a decision."

Wood promised to pay the total due "in late spring or summer. ... There is no sinister or devious plan here, just an honest business guy trying to get by in hard times."

So he first claims that he didn't know about it, then he claims that he did know about it but decided not to pay. These two claims are not consistent.