Posted on 11/16/2007 6:16:27 AM PST by khnyny
The D.C. auditor urged city government officials three years ago to "closely monitor" the flow of real property tax revenue after she noticed a spike in the amount of money refunded to property owners.
Deborah K. Nichols's reports, made in the summer of 2004, did not suggest wrongdoing in the Office of Tax and Revenue, the department now at the center of the largest financial scandal in the city's history. But she noted that the amount of property tax refunds was 105.7 percent higher than projected over three fiscal quarters, a jump not easily explained. She suggested that officials take a closer look.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The total stolen continues to rise and is currently at approximately $31 Million.
Not “stolen.” The correct phrase is “taken from you for the common good.”
Here is a great visual chart which shows the chain of command at the DC offices.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2007/11/15/GR2007111500138.html
It’s obvious to anyone with a pulse that this theft encompasses more people than have been indicted so far. It is also surprising that a Federal investigation that usually takes 1-2 years was done in approximately 3 months.
DC is a sewer of corruption.
Ping.
Poorly written article. It seems to jump from a statistical anomaly to calling what happened a scam without laying any groundwork as to how they decided the record refunds were unwarranted. What is missing here?
What’s missing is about two weeks worth of related articles outlining the exact theft (or thereabouts). Click on the “related articles” section of the WP for more info or search FR.
Affirmative action hires. Once in charge they do all they can to prove the stereotypes are right.
600 people to run one cities property tax division? That is unbelievably excessive, how many homes are there?
Related article:
D.C. Council Suspects Tax Scandal Bigger Than 2 Employees
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21825718/
Big surprise there. /sarcasm
So who was getting all the extra “refunds?” I basically did fall off the turnip truck yesterday with respect to this scandal, so I just want to know who was pocketing all the money (and if they will be criminally charged).
This kind of crap is why Metrorail switched their parking payment method to electronic: Metro parking employees were stealing some of the cash. IIRC, the theft went into the millions of dollars.
It was at least six figures, if not seven, with respect to the parking scandal.
Yes, some people have been criminally charged, but remember, this is DC government we’re talking about here - kind of like the wolf watching the hen house.
The speculation is that more are guilty. We’ll see if indictments happen...
.. so they spent $25 million deploying the Smartrip system.
I suspect this was more about making 8 figure work for a politically connected company than it was saving 7 figure money from employee theft.
Ahh. Thanks for the link. That explains a lot. Great detective work over there to trace some of the ill gotten gains to the DNC!
ping
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