Richard Mourdock Has A Tax Problem

On June 13 this blog took exception to the treatment blogger, rebel pundit, received at a Richard Mourdock's rally in Kokomo, Indiana. Also in the video Mr. Mourdock seemed rather unenthusiastic in his support of the Tea Party. Since then things were looking for him. Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post blog wrote a nice post after she interviewed him and Erick Erickson at Red State gave his blessing. Then late yesterday the new from Indianapolis was that Mr. Mourdock has a tax problem. Not the sort of thing a Tea Party candidate really needs. Of course it was all a mistake explained Mourdock. Under Indiana law a property owner is given a break on his property taxes if he has a mortgage on that property. Very simple! One house one exemption. But Mourdock has a home in Evansville and also a condo in Indianapolis and he was claiming an exemption on both. Channel 13 News in Indianapolis reports:

"Eyewitness News has discovered that Richard Mourdock has
a homestead exemption on a home on Ridge Knoll in Evansville, Indiana and he has
a second homestead exemption on a north New Jersey St. condominium in
Indianapolis which he purchased in 2007."

"I remember filing out one of the forms to indeed cancel
the homestead property tax credit. That's why I thought this problem had been
solved at the time. It wasn't until June of this year that I found out that form
had been lost down there so I filled out another form to cancel the homestead
credit and made all of the arrangements to pay all the back taxes in excess of
what they normally collect in this situation," he said.

In fact, Mourdock even has a form from the Marion County
auditor's office admitting to the mix-up.

And a Marion County deputy auditor admits that the exemption was granted in error. Ok so what's the problem? The problem is he took the exemption for three years before he got around to correcting it. Are we to believe that a former county commissioner, a former congressional candidate, and second term State Treasurer does not know how to read a tax bill? If one does indeed believe Mourdock then one must also believe Timothy Geithner.