Brad Avakian and Kurt Schrader failed to pay taxes

by NW Spotlight

Members of the pro-tax Democratic party do a better job of levying taxes on others than paying taxes themselves: Brad Avakian and Kurt Schrader both have histories of delinquent taxes.

Avakian’s Tax Problems

Brad Avakian is a Democratic candidate in the 1st Congressional District special election to replace David Wu. The Willamette Week recently reported that Avakian hasn’t always paid his taxes on time. In 2005, the IRS filed a $13,120 lien against Avakian for unpaid federal income taxes dating back to 2002.

Avakian also failed to pay his Washington County property taxes of about $4,000 in 2006. He paid them seven months late, along with $500 of interest charges.

Avakian’s history of failure to pay his own taxes casts a shadow of hypocrisy on his support of last year’s Measures 66 and 67 tax increases.

Schrader’s Tax Problems

At a town hall in Keizer last month, U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader said Congress needs to raise tax collections by limiting or ending tax breaks. This is the same Kurt Schrader who has a history of not paying his own taxes. Roll Call is reporting that Schrader paid a small amount ($300) in delinquent D.C. property taxes last month. As Roll Call notes, this “by itself is (maybe) no big deal, but Schrader has something of a history on this issue.”

Roll Call references a 2005 AP story about Schrader’s previous tax problems: “Schrader racked up penalties 13 times from 1985 to 2005 on his Oregon farm and home. In fact, he paid no property taxes on his Oregon home from 1998 to 2001.”  “The Schraders ran into tax-paying problems again in 2003.”

In 2005 Schrader said “I assume we are no different than the average Oregonian” regarding his priortizing buying food over paying taxes.

Taxes Too High

Certainly most Oregonians would agree with Kurt Schrader’s statement; which is also why so many Oregonians would say our taxes are too high. If even staunch Democrats like Brad Avakian and Kurt Schrader are having so much trouble paying their taxes, then doesn’t that suggest that we’re paying too much in taxes? Should we really be forcing Oregonians to choose between buying food for their families and paying their taxes?