State party pays property taxes one month late

Democrats say delinquency the result of a ‘clerical error’

The Democratic Party of Arkansas paid its property taxes Wednesday — more than a month late, according to the Pulaski County treasurer’s office.

The taxes for 2017 — $2,895.67 for real estate and $847.07 for business assets at the party’s headquarters at 1300 W. Capitol Ave. in Little Rock — were billed in March and due by Oct. 15.

Reed Brewer, a party spokesman, said the taxes and penalties have been paid in full.

“It was a clerical error with our compliance officer,” Brewer said.

According to Pulaski County Chief Deputy Treasurer Bentley Hovis, this is the first time the Democratic Party of Arkansas has been delinquent on property taxes.

“First time ever,” Hovis said.

Each year after the October deadline, counties around the state publish the names and the amounts for delinquent accounts in the area newspapers of record. Hovis said his office also conducts a “phone blitz” for everyone who owed more than $300 in taxes.

Hovis said he doesn’t know whether anyone from the Democratic Party’s office actually received the phone reminder because the callers are not allowed to leave messages.

“We have to actually get ahold of someone,” Hovis said.

The Democratic Party of Arkansas paid $406.76 in penalties, interest and costs for the oversight, bringing the total paid Wednesday to $4,149.50. The real estate property-tax bill covers the actual land while the business property-tax statement is for “what’s inside the property,” such as office supplies and furniture, Hovis said.

The delinquency comes on the heels of a heated campaign for the House District 47 seat between the party’s

chairman, Rep. Michael John Gray of Augusta, and his Republican challenger, Craig Christiansen of Bald Knob.

Before the Nov. 6 election — in which Christiansen took the office with 3,650 votes to Gray’s 3,548 — Gray’s camp took aim at Christiansen’s history of tax liens, property forfeitures and unpaid personal property taxes.

According to tax records and court filings, Christiansen’s unpaid state, federal and property tax delinquencies forced the state to file more than two dozen tax liens since 1998, take his home and assess penalties for multiple late payments on personal property tax bills in White and Jefferson counties.

Christiansen said previously that the financial woes were caused by an undisclosed family medical issue.

When contacted Wednesday

about the late tax payment by the Democratic Party of Arkansas, Christiansen did not take the opportunity to gloat.

“They should get the problem resolved, just as anyone who is delinquent should do,” Christiansen said. “I feel they will make every effort to get it resolved in a timely manner.”

In 1998, the Republican Party of Arkansas was delinquent on property taxes levied on its state headquarters at 1201 W. Sixth St. in Little Rock and a small strip of vacant land on Spring Street next to Interstate 630. The taxes were due Oct. 15, 1998, and were not paid until Nov. 3, 1998.

At the time, Republican Party Executive Director Chris Carnahan told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the payments were sent by mail Oct. 17, two days late. The checks were returned because by then the party had also been assessed a small penalty.