For the second time this month, a member of the S.C. General Assembly has been convicted of not paying his income taxes.
S.C. Rep. Harold Mitchell (D-Spartanburg) pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his income taxes from 2005-08. Mitchell was given three years probation and ordered to pay $10,000 in addition to back taxes in the amount of $6,000.
The Upstate Democrat – and former leader of the S.C. Legislative Black Caucus – had been facing four felony charges and up to 20 years in prison.
Mitchell’s plea comes ten days after S.C. Rep. Kris Crawford (R-Florence) was found guilty of four counts of failing to pay his income tax. Crawford – who has since repaid his debt to the state – was ordered to pay a fine of $10,000.
Mitchell and Crawford aren’t the only state lawmakers whose income situations have raised eyebrows. Former S.C. Rep. Nikki Haley – who was elected governor in 2010 – is still facing questions regarding her lengthy history of tardy tax filings. Haley is also facing much more serious questions regarding how much money she earned during the middle part of the previous decade.
Despite reporting income of roughly $40,300 to the IRS in 2006, Haley and her husband Michael lived in a large, $300,000 home – with Haley tooling around town in a Cadillac SUV wearing expensive clothes, jewelry and lingerie. More problematically, last March it was revealed that Haley’s job application for a fundraising position at Lexington Medical Center included a 2007 income estimate which vastly exceeded the amount of money that Haley reported to the IRS that year.
As we’ve noted on numerous occasions, South Carolina’s leaders need to enhance our state’s competitive position by cutting government and reducing income tax rates. Of course they’ll never have any credibility on that latter issue if they fail to pay their own income taxes.
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10 comments
expensive lengerie? Why did you have to throw that in there?
I thought the lengerie looked a little used and skanky.
$16,000 to apply to the $300M bill! We’re getting there!
Fits wins the spelling contest: its lingerie, not lengerie.
“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”-Leona Helmsley
Apparently he was suspended but will receive retroctive payment from the state which he can use to pay taxes!! Paid for doing nothing????
What a mess my beloved SC has become.
“…Haley tooling around town in a Cadillac SUV wearing expensive clothes, jewelry and lingerie.”
The same SUV where makes out with guys who aren’t her husband?
She’s not actually “facing” those charges-this website is the only place they’re ever mentioned! It’s not like the IRS is coming after her.
and he will go right back to the State House to “represent” the people of SC
we get what we deserve, we need to appoint an independent prosecutor to clean up our government, we are worse than we were during Lost Trust
how can we go through somethine like Lost Trust, and still allow the Legislature to, by law, police itself?
FITS, if you want to really DO something, instead of lameass ads to root out lamerass constituents, why don’t you work to get some meaningful reform legislation passed?
better yet, a Constitutional Amendment requiring ethics to be handled by an independent body???
not trying to be negative, you could actually get something done…