County Democrats trying to hit Santorum where he doesn't live
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Democrats on Allegheny County Council plan to offer a resolution tonight calling for heightened scrutiny and potential prosecution of property owners who improperly claim a homestead tax exemption.
Amid a highly charged election campaign, the measure seems calculated to again highlight the fact that U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum is a part-time resident of Allegheny County, while he and his family spend most of their time in a home in Virginia.
There is nothing illegal or unethical about the common practice of members of Congress moving their families to Washington for all or part of the year, but the residence spotlight has been a political headache for the Santorum campaign in part because he exploited a similar issue against a Democratic incumbent in his first race for Congress in 1990.
Allegheny County's homestead exemption for real estate taxes, worth about $70 annually, is intended to be used only for a homeowner's primary residence. Mr. Santorum claims the exemption on a home in Penn Hills, although he acknowledges that he and his family spend most of the year in his Leesburg, Va., residence.
An aide to Mr. Santorum said that while the senator claims the homestead exemption, he has made a practice of donating a check for the equivalent amount to the county. His campaign did not immediately shed any light on why he would take the exemption and make the compensatory payment rather than simply not taking the exemption -- a procedure that would have the same net financial result for the senator and the county.
"When he went on 'Meet the Press' and said he stays [in his Penn Hills home] 30 days, it highlighted the fact,'' said Rich Fitzgerald, County Council president. "You look on the [Allegheny County] Web site and it shows him taking the homestead exemption when it's clear that it has to be your primary residence.''
The renewed attention to the exemption, coming two months before the November election, is a replay of a protest from last year, when activists in a group called Democracy for Pittsburgh pressed the county and the district attorney's office to act against Mr. Santorum. While the district attorney and the county manager reviewed the issue, nothing came of that protest.
The residence issue has dogged Mr. Santorum throughout his re-election campaign along with a related controversy over the Penn Hills school board's effort to be reimbursed for cyber school tuition payments incurred for Mr. Santorum's children. The state Department of Education recently proposed a settlement of that lawsuit in which the state would reimburse Penn Hills $55,000 for tuition payments.
The council resolution urges "the Office of Property Assessment and the Allegheny County District Attorney to work cooperatively to identify and fully prosecute individuals who receive the homestead exemption from real property taxation through fraudulent or otherwise deceptive means."
At the time the issue arose last year, Jim Flynn, the county manager, said a search of county records failed to turn up whatever paperwork was filed to request the Santorum exemption.
First Published September 12, 2006 12:00 am
