WyBlog

NFL player and congressional candidate Jon Runyan is NOT a tax cheat

Using legal loopholes to minimize our taxes is an American tradition. It's why we hire accountants and lawyers and use online tools like H&R Block's "refund maximizer". So how exactly is it "news" for the Star-Ledger to report that NFL star and GOP congressional candidate Jon Runyan takes advantage of a property tax exemption to which anyone is legally entitled?

Mr. Runyan owns 20 acres in Mount Laurel, NJ. On the 5 acres around his house his property tax bill was a whopping $57,000 dollars last year. (Yikes, it really is true that NJ has the highest taxes in the nation!) But on the other 15 acres he claims a "farmland" exemption. He uses that land to raise 4 donkeys as well as harvest timber which he sells for firewood. The tax bill for his farmland is only $468.

It's all perfectly legal. The farmland exemption was enacted by the legislature many years ago to encourage people to keep the land undeveloped.

But of course that doesn't stop the Democrats and their toadies in the media from crying "foul". They believe Joe Biden when he said it's our "patriotic duty" to pay taxes. Not that they themselves should pay taxes; only "rich people" should pay taxes!

So I'll take this occasion to remind all my liberal friends of my favorite quote of all time.

"Anybody has a right to evade taxes if he can get away with it. No citizen has a moral obligation to assist in maintaining the government."
— J. P. Morgan

Jon Runyan pays all the taxes which he is legally obligated to pay. Can the Democrats say the same about Charlie Rangel? Or Tim Geithner?

UPDATE 22 Jan 2010 13:24:
Linked at Ruby Slippers where MarySue notes that the libs are gearing up the smear machines early in the mistaken belief that Martha Coakley lost in Massachusetts because they didn't play dirty enough.

Posted at 10:07 by Chris Wysocki   [/election]   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |
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