Georgia House candidate Robert Lamutt battles tax debt

By Janel Davis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Former state senator Robert Lamutt is returning to politics with not only name recognition, but also tax debt.

Lamutt is one of five candidates in the Sept. 20 special election vying for the state House seat left vacant by the death of the late Rep. Bobby Franklin of Marietta.

Reviews of financial and tax records by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for all of the candidates in the race show that the Internal Revenue Service filed two liens against Lamutt in 2009 for unpaid quarterly and unemployment taxes owed by his business and entities. The liens, covering tax filing periods in 2008 and 2009, total about $136,500.

Lamutt, 55, a commercial real estate investor, said he has worked out a payment plan with the IRS and is currently paying off the debts.

The IRS does not release liens until the liens are satisfied, and does not disclose individual taxpayer information.

The tax issues are directly tied to the economy, Lamutt said.

“All of my peers went under and we got into some problems,” he said. “I could have gone bankrupt and walked away from everything and everybody, but I worked out a payment plan and paid back the companies we owed, and [the IRS liens] are in the process of being worked out.”

Lamutt was also hit with state liens earlier this year for unpaid unemployment taxes by his business, Diversified Assets Management over the past three years. Those liens were erroneously applied because the state department had not correctly registered the business, Lamutt said. The liens have since been resolved, he said.

The candidate has close to $30,000 in closed state and federal liens dating back to 2004 and through 2009, for his entities including his business and his congressional campaign.

In campaigns, personal finance issues do surface from time to time, especially if a campaign is doing opposition research, said Kerwin Swint, political science professor at Kennesaw State University.

“How damaging it is depends on whether it’s part of a pattern of other problems, then it could be an issue,” he said. “If it’s isolated or if there is a reasonable circumstance for it, then probably not.”

When Franklin died in July, friends encouraged Lamutt to run for the seat, he said.

“I enjoy the give and take, the people, the constituents, my neighbors,” he said. “It’s a way to serve the community and I would like to do it again.”

While serving in the state senate, Lamutt was chairman of the Fiscal Management Subcommittee of Appropriations. In the current race for the Dist. 43 seat, he faces four other candidates: real estate agent Roy Barnes, banker John Carson, former Cobb GOP chairman Don Hill and physician Geraldine Wade.