Lawmakers who owe taxes now in ethics probe

Under a new state law, the state revenue commissioner must report to the House and Senate ethics committees the names of any lawmaker who has not filed or paid state income taxes. That report is made only after each lawmaker is notified and given 30 days to correct the situation. Any member of the House and Senate still in arrears after 30 days gets investigated by his or her colleagues.

That 30-day grace period has expired and at least one senator and two representatives are being investigated, the chairmen of the ethics committees told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The newspaper requested a copy of the Department of Revenue’s report through the state’s Open Records Act, but the agency refused to release even a redacted version.

The issue of lawmakers not paying taxes came to a head during this past legislative session, when a list of 19 legislators, their names blacked out, was passed around the Capitol. That was the catalyst for the new law that all sides are now feeling their way through.

But a few state lawmakers remain in arrears. The House Ethics Committee met in private on Monday to consider at least two, possibly three, lawmakers, Chairman Joe Wilkinson (R-Atlanta) said. Senate Ethics Chairman Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) said his committee has already met once, but Johnson would only say that “a senator or senators” remains in tax trouble.

Efforts to reach Williams were unsuccessful, but the Department of Revenue records show Williams owes between $70,000 and $100,000, according to liens filed in 2006.

Abdul-Salaam acknowledged that her legislative pay was being garnisheed to satisfy a $646 lien originally filed by the state in 2001. But she said she was unaware that the state had also filed a lien in May for more than $14,000 from 2002-2007.

Nor has the House Ethics Committee notified her that she’s being investigated, she said.

“The answer to the question is no. I was not aware,” Abdul-Salaam said.

She is paying what she owes, she said, by having her wages garnisheed.

“I’ve been in Georgia all my life,” Abdul-Salaam said, adding that 2001 was “the only time I didn’t pay my taxes.”

Several other lawmakers had tax problems, Wilkinson, the House ethics chairman, said, but only three House members had not settled the debt by the end of the 30 days. Of those three, one was in the process of resolving his situation, Wilkinson said.

The ethics committee was to decide Monday whether to open a full hearing on the delinquent taxpayers in the House. If that happens, the lawmakers in question will be brought in to meet with the committee — again in private. If the committee “determines there is enough evidence of wrongdoing, then we will vote to have a full public hearing,” Wilkinson said. “And that’s when the names will become public.”

The Senate has been “moving very carefully and slowly because of all the confidentiality issues we’re dealing with,” said Johnson, the ethics chairman.

Senate rules, he said, require confidentiality until “there is a conclusion.” Fort said Monday the Senate Ethics Committee has not notified him that he’s under investigation or scrutiny.

Johnson, who originally developed the idea for the new law, said his committee has already decided to move forward with a full investigation.

“There is no debate that the names are released and the recommendations are released at the end of the process,” he said.