Mass Gov. Race: First Democrat to pay their taxes wins

First supposed front-runner Tom Reilly selects state representative Marie St. Fleur, a sponsor of the wildly unpopular tuition tax break for illegal immigrant bill, as his choice for Lt. Governor. Then, a few hours later, we learn that St. Fleur doesn’t feel the need pay federal income taxes, excise taxes on her car or her student loans back, to the tune of almost $60K total. And yes, she is against lowering the state income tax as voted on by the citizens of MA. Of course.

So let’s review: we cannot afford a cut in the state income tax as voted on by the people, but we can afford tax breaks for illegal immigrants college tuition. Got it.

A few hours after she resigned, Reilly’s opponent on the Democrat side in the governors race, Deval Patrick, disclosed his own tax problems,

St. Fleur quits race; Patrick reveals tax delinquency

Marie St. Fleur, a little more than 24 hours after entering the lieutenant governorâ??s race, decided Wednesday to abandon her campaign after revelations of tax and loan delinquency, according to a top aide to her running mate, Attorney General Tom Reilly.

St. Fleurâ??s financial troubles sparked revelations from another politician in the thick of this yearâ??s gubernatorial campaign: Deval Patrick, Reillyâ??s top rival for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, released a statement disclosing that he, too, had been a tax delinquent.

â??More than a decade ago, Diane and I had an installment agreement with the IRS to pay, on a monthly basis, an unexpected tax liability,â? Patrick said in a statement issued to The Associated Press. â??We missed one or two of our installments. This triggered an IRS lien. We took immediate steps to pay off the balance and within five months discharged in full the $8,778 we owed.â?

To be fair to Patrick, he paid his taxes back. Unexpected or large tax bills happen to people all the time. That’s one reason to do away with or at least dramatically alter the AMT tax, although it isn’t clear what the actual cause of his problem was.

He (Patrick) said the revelation won’t make it more difficult to talk about taxes on the campaign trail. Patrick has said the state can’t yet afford a cut in the income tax rate. “I don’t think this has anything to do with that,” he said.

I don’t either, it just means your wrong on tax policy. This is going to be a fun race, that’s for sure.