Jake Zimmerman on Jaco Report: Chip Wood Refuses to Appear!

Democratic candidate for County Assessor Jake Zimmerman was a guest yesterday on the Election Edition of the Jaco Report. His opponent Chip Wood bizarrely refused to appear!

You can watch the report here:

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.

Republican Who Wants To Be In Charge Of Property Taxes Doesn't Pay His Property Taxes

Since back taxes are in the news, maybe we should consider something with a little more serious practical implications than Claire McCaskill noticing that her accountant hadn't been listing some personal property taxes and then voluntarily paying them. There's an election coming up on April 5 for St. Louis County Assessor. This election will determine the person in charge of assigning property tax values to county real estate.

The entire function of the job is to deal with property taxes, so you would think it'd be a given that both of the candidates would have made sure that their own property taxes were in order. You'd be wrong. KMOX reported:

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.

And that wasn't his only problem:

Last week, Wood blamed a mailing address mix-up after a move for being late paying $2,400 in St. Louis County personal property tax. The county counselor has sent Wood a letter of apology noting that while Wood was late, he did pay his county tax bill before the county sued him for nonpayment.

So, if your job is to be in charge of property taxes, but you don't even pay your own, isn't that a pretty major problem?

Fortunately, Democrats have a great candidate in Jake Zimmerman:

So, if you live in St. Louis County, and you're voting for the guy who's in charge of property taxes, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you should go with the guy who actually pays his own. Or, as the Post-Dispatch puts it:

If there must be an elected assessor, it should be someone professional enough to understand the complications of the job and compassionate enough to care about people with problems. Also, his taxes should be current. We recommend Jake Zimmerman.