Sarah Palin and property ownership

Safari Lake cabin (Photo courtesy of Mudflats)

Following on from Housegate, it seems appropriate to look into the Palin's other properties and the issues arising from their attitudes to property ownership.

The Palins own a total of six properties in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough: Two houses in Wasilla in their own names, three properties on Safari Lake with Scott Richter and one cabin on Alexander Creek with a bunch of people.

One of the properties on Safari Lake caused some controversy last year, when it was discovered that although two cabins were built on the land in 2006, the Palins and Mr Richter failed to inform the authorities and paid taxes on the land only until 2010.

The tax bill jumped from $124.91 in 2009 to $1,156.10 in 2010. The Palins evaded taxes for four years.

(Please click on image to enlarge)

Sarah Palin's attorney, Mr Van Flein, blamed the borough for not doing their job in assessing the value of the property. The borough said they rely on property owners to inform them about any changes that may affect the value of their properties.

Sarah Palin was sworn in as governor of Alaska in December 2006. It would be fair to assume that the governor would strive to set a good example for the rest of the citizens of the state by adhering to the law and the rules and regulations of the land.

Taxes pay for services on which people may have to rely on at some point. One of these services is provided by the Fire Department. Let's imagine that sometime in 2007 there was an explosion followed by a fire on one the Safari Lake cabins. Who would put the fire out and try to save the lives of anybody caught in the incident? What if the Fire Department went by the information provided by the property owners and didn't bother to turn up to put out a fire on an "empty" tract of land?

People don't like paying taxes, but taxes buy a number of things that allow us to have some security and prevent us from living in chaos. What would we do without the police, firefighters, garbage collectors, schools, libraries, decent roads and many, many other services?

How would a mayor or a governor be able to govern if all the citizens followed Sarah Palin's example and didn't pay their taxes until they were found out, then blamed it on somebody else?

What would be the fate of the country if Sarah Palin called the shots and led by example?
UPDATE

An alert reader noticed something curious in the assessment of the value of Sarah Palin's new chateau, here's a screenshot:

(Please click on image to enlarge)

The building appears to have two assessment values, $2,000 and $5,500. The form states that the actual building was 53% complete. How did the authorities arrive at these values? Does it mean that once completed the building will be valued at either $4,000 or $11,000? The mind boggles...


This link to the property search on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough website shows all six properties owned by the Palins and the details of the buidings, values, taxes and other interesting information.

Please read previous posts on this topic for further details.

Sarah Palin leading the way on tax dodges

(Photo courtesy of Mudflats)

The cabin on Safari Lake, owned by Sarah and Todd Palin with Scott Richter, has been appraised by the Mat-Su Borough at $99,700.



When Mudflats first reported that the Palins had not paid property taxes on the cabin, Sarah Palin's lawyer, Mr Thomas Van Flein, said it is not the owners responsibility to notify the authorities of any changes to the property. The Palins built the very large cabin sometime after 2005, didn't notify the Mat-Su Borough and paid taxes on the land only for a number of years, with buildings appraised at zero value.

The property on Safari Lake appeared on the APOC financial disclosures for the first time in 2005.



In an article from the Mat-Su Frontiersman, dated March 13, 2010, the head of the Mat-Su Borough Division of Assessment reiterated that homeowners do have the responsibility to notify them of changes, contrary to Mr Van Fleins assertion.

In areas off the road system, Dunivan said assessors use a combination of planes, boats and off-road vehicles to spot check properties.

Dunivan said it is the responsibility of the homeowner to notify the borough of any changes to the property. But, he is also realistic.

“Typically, that is not done,” Dunivan said.

When assessors do find out an improvement has been made, Dunivan said owners are not liable for past years when the improvements may not have been included in an assessment.

This is a very nice system, the homeowners are completely off the hook for past taxes and only become liable to pay any tax on new or improved buildings when the assessors decide to have a look around or somebody blows the whistle on somebody else.

Mrs Palin was not ignorant of the rules. After all, she had been mayor of a city in the Mat-Su Borough for a number of years and knew how important it is to raise revenue through property and other taxes. Money raised from taxes pay for services, improvements, sports arenas, you name it. We suspect the cabin was built sometime around 2006/2007, when Sarah Palin was either running for governor or had already been elected.

We all know how Alaska is not very keen on taxes. But they do exist and one would expect the highest government official in the state to set a good example. As Mr Dunivan said, typically people don't inform the authorities about changes to their properties and nothing happens, they get away with it.

Including the quitter governor, ethics champion extraordinaire, honest to the core...


Read all posts by Palingates referring to Sarah's "property taxgate" HERE.

(H/T to Older_Wiser for the tax assessment news)

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Looking into Sarah Palin's finances

This post lists the Palins' properties and expensive toys, including several photos. Apart form the new chateau, all properties were acquired before Sarah Palin's book deal.

PART 1 - The properties

Palins' old house

Palin's present house, built at the same time as the sports complex


Palins' present house

The kitchen

Please note the railings reflection

Palins' cabin in Petersville, declared value: $0.00

The Palins own property with Richter and the Hansons


The property owned with the Hansons


Palins' new chateau, built after the book deal. Interesting windows...

PART 2 - The sports complex

PART 3 - The expensive toys

Todd Palin shows off his snowmobile to Greta Van Susteren on Lake Lucille


Todd Palin with one of his snowmobiles


Piper on her four-wheeler


Cousins and their snowmobiles in Petersville. The person in Arctic Cat gear on the right is Willow


Sarah Palin and Piper having fun on another fancy toy


Sarah Palin poses with Todd's Piper seaplane


Greta Van Susteren and Sarah Palin looking at Todd's Piper seaplane

The famous tanning bed

They also own various cars, but I couldn't find exactly which were their own and which were provided by the state. The only vehicle definitely owned by the Palins prior to the book deal is a black VW Jetta Diesel.

Some members of the family appear to have gym memberships and enjoy visiting tanning salons.

PART 4 - The income

PART 5 - The Richters

Article from Bloomberg:

Shortly after she was elected governor, Palin's office signed off on hiring Deborah Richter -- who attended college for a year then worked in bookkeeping and finance jobs -- as director of a division that distributes dividends to Alaskans from the state's oil-wealth savings account. Richter, who said she's known Palin for 13 years, was Palin's gubernatorial campaign treasurer and ran her inaugural committee.

The Richters and Palins also shared an investment: 30 acres of rural property near a lake in Petersville, Alaska, worth $47,300, according to Matanuska-Susitna Borough data.

"It sounds like a patronage deal for someone who ran your campaign; that's pretty normal,'' said Bill Buzenberg, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington. "What's not normal is that they have business dealings together.''

Article from the Juneau Empire:

Alaska Permanent Fund dividend checks barely made it out on time last year after a computer technician accidentally wiped out a data file containing hundreds of thousands of dividend applications.

Recovering from the Permanent Fund Division data loss involved calling in temporary workers to reconstruct lost data. Applications from the increasing number of applications filed online were able to be recovered; but paper applications had to be reconstructed by hand.

"Manually reconstructing" thousands of several hundred dollar payments from a state dividend fund? That sounds like it could be open to abuse.

Why did the Governor refuse to allow disclosure of the mandated state audit report on the computer failure?

Juneau freelance reporter Bob Tkacz was one of the reporters asking for the transition reports.

"No other governor in my experience has ever kept those reports confidential, and certainly never censored them in the way the Palin administration did," he said.

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The Palins own property with Richter. These properties are listed by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough as owned by PALIN TODD M & SARAH H/ RICHTER SCOTT A and RICHTER INVESTMENTS INC/ PALIN TODD M & SARAH H

PART 5 - The questions

We looked at the properties and expensive toys owned by the Palins until the book deal. Before that deal was signed, the total family income was fairly modest.

Does their lifestyle reflect their income prior to Sarah Palin's resignation as governor?

The Housegate questions resurface yet again. What's the real story behind the construction of the Palin's main residence and the large cabin in Petersville?

The Palins relationship with the Richters involves a committe that could dispose of surplus donations to the Alaska Inaugural Committe by making charitable contributions to organizations of the governor's choice.

What are the names of these charities and what was the total sum of money donated to them?

The relationship also involves a computer failure relating to the Permanent Fund Dividend.

Did any money go missing? Why wasn't the audit regarding the computer failure released for public inspection?

Does the cosy relationship between the Palins and the Richters seem a bit fishy?

PART 6 - Conclusion

Study the photos and documents carefully. If anybody uncovers any other information, please share it with us in the comments section, including links whenever possible.

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Supporting documents and resources:
Tax return 2006
Tax return 2007
IRS
Financial disclosure
Alaska Inaugural Committe report
Mat-Su Borough property search
Gryphen's post about the cabin
Article from the ADN
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Sarah Palin's attorney doesn't know the laws of the state

We're all very excited that the story about Sarah Palin's property taxes has reached the national media. It's great to see Jeanne Devon's efforts and dedication to the truth achieve wider exposure. Mudflats is a fantastic blog, always honest and well researched.

I selected the article from MSNBC. Let's focus on Van Flein's response:

Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said it is not the responsibility of property owners to report structures that go up on their land.

"It is the borough's job," he said in an e-mail. "The property taxes on this parcel are fully paid and have never been delinquent."

Nobody said the Palins were delinquent in paying the taxes based on the existing assessment of the value of the property. They were delinquent in not informing the borough about the building of the structures and accepted the valuation of $0.00 for years, knowing that they were worth considerably more than that.

Dave Dunivan, the assessor for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, said owners are required by state law to report any omissions or errors in their tax assessments.

At least one of the cabins was built in 2006, very likely during the summer. Sarah Palin took her oath to serve as governor of the state of Alaska in December 2006. She represented the state and one would presume part of her job would be to ensure that state laws are upheld.

Is her attorney really twisting state law in defending his client? Van Flein said the exact opposite of what state law requirements are in this case. The least one could expect from the highest state official is that she would obey the laws of that state.

One would also expect her lawyer to inform himself a bit better about the law before making erroneous statements.

AS 29.45.180(a) requires the taxpayer who receives an assessment notice to advise the assessor of errors or omissions in the assessment of property.

As we have all realized by now, laws apply to other people, not to Sarah Palin and her family...

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We have just received word that this story has now reached the international media as well. It's everywhere!

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BREAKING NEWS: Jeanne Devon (Mudflats) reveals on the Shannyn Moore radio show that Sarah Palin has been evading property taxes for several years

GRIFTER WATCH

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What an exciting start into February:

Jeanne Devon ("AKMuckraker") from the famous Mudflats blog in Alaska just disclosed on the air on the Shannyn Moore Show that Sarah and Todd Palin have been evading property taxes for years now for two of their properties. If the Palins had declared the value of the property correctly, they would have had to pay a substantial amount until today - which they didn't.

The property in question are two cabins in a remote area in Petersville, AK.

Despite of the fact that the two cabins are proper, large houses, the Palins "wisely" chose to declare the value of the cabins with $ 0,00 and only declared the land with a value of $ 30,000.


One of the "cabins" which the Palins have self-assessed

with a value of $ 0,00 for several years until now
(picture about 2 years old, according to Mudflats)

Jeanne Devon on Mudflats explains the particulars of the case in a brilliant, carefully researched post and reveals more highly embarrassing details, including the fact that Sarah Palin in the past explicitly spoke out against the non-payment of property taxes and declined to support the candidate Vic Kohring in the past because he owed his borough $ 2,277 in unpaid property taxes.

This scandal came to light because an unknown person sent Jeanne Devon an ominous envelope with the general facts. Allow me to quote this letter:

Todd and Sarah are now millionaires, but they shirk their responsibility to pay local property taxes.

Attached are printed copies of Matanuska-Susitna Borough tax assessments from the public website (address shown at the bottom) regarding two lake frontage properties the Palins own in the Petersville Hills. Safari Lake is a gorgeous location, with stunning views of Mt. McKinley and the surrounding terrain.

Please note that two parcels total almost 20 acres and are assessed for a total value of $30,000. Also, there is a $0 value regarding any buildings on the property.

Any photos or visual inspection of the properties would clearly reveal that there are two large “cabins” on the property that are well built, and include thousands of dollars worth of improvements and amenities. The buildings are clearly nicer than many people’s homes.

Also on the property is a large shop for snowmachines and four-wheelers.

These buildings have been on the property for years now – yet the Palins have done nothing to correct the assessment.

I have managed to record the second part of the on-the-air conversation between Shannyn Moore and Jeanne Devon and will put it up here in a few minutes.

In addition, Jeanne Devon announced on the Shannyn Moore Show that she will post the story on Huffington Post. This scandal will go national!

Al Capone redux?

Now we finally know why Sarah Palin doesn't like "big government" - she rather keeps the money for herself! Is this supposed to be the "real America"?

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UPDATE:

The Mudflats-website has apparently crashed - but you can read the story on Huffington Post HERE!

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UPDATE 2:

The story is just a few hours old, but judging at the reaction at C4P, it seems that Sarah Palin's "general defence" is already apparent: It's all the "government's" fault! The Borough didn't assess Palin's property correctly, therefore the Palins are innocent! Move along, nothing to see here!

But wait a moment!

Could it be that the ex-Mayor and ex-Governor Sarah Palin has forgotten that citizen also have "actual responsibilities"?

Well, after about 5 minutes of research, we found the following explanation for the assessment of property taxes in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough (you have to click on "Your Rights and Responsibilities"):

WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES?

If your opinion of the value of your property differs from the assessor’s, by all means go to the office and discuss the matter. Staff will be glad to answer your questions about the appraisal and explain how to appeal if you cannot come to an agreement. The assessor’s office relies on the property owner for information. You can help by providing accurate information.

Sarah Palin: It seems that the people from the Borough were not obliged to climb up the mountain to look at your property, which apparently doesn't even have proper road access - it seems that YOU were required to tell them that the two cabins are worth much, much more than $ 0,00!

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UPDATE 3:

In case you have missed Shannyn's radio show - I have good news for you!

I managed to record the second part of the conversation between Jeanne Devon and Shannyn Moore which happened a few hours earlier. I had to divide the conversation into two clips. It's essential to listen to the recording, because Jeanne and Shannyn give a lot more background information, and Jeanne explains in detail why the owners of these cabins have a responsibility to assess the property correctly themselves. Therefore, Sarah's possible "it's the governments fault" defence will not be successful.

Don't miss the interesting remark of Shannyn Moore right at the end of the second clip at 4:58! ;-)

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UPDATE 4:

Our reader "Older_Wiser" made an interesting discovery:

There's evidently precedent in AK for charging the proper taxes retroactively on property not even shown by the tax assessor, and for the taxpayer to properly list said property, as this post I borrowed from Mudflats shows:

"I haven’t been able to find any cases specifically about the Mat-Su borough but an Anchorage case held that the assessor could retroactively assess a warehouse addition as “escaped property” even though the assessor had assessed the other buildings but missed the addition. (Anchorage v. Alaska Distribs. Co., 725 P.2d 692 ).

"The court held “AS 29.45.110(a) and AS 29.45.180(a) also support our holding. AS 29.45.110(a) requires the assessor to assess property at its full and true value. AS 29.45.180(a) requires the taxpayer who receives an assessment notice to advise the assessor of errors or omissions in the assessment of property. These statutes emphasize the legislature’s policy of fairness to all taxpayers by insuring payment by each taxpayer of its fair share of taxes and by disallowing windfalls due to the tax [**10] assessor’s errors. ”

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UPDATE 5:

Here are the links to the assessments of Sarah and Todd Palin's properties which are in question here, as previously published on Mudflats:

http://www.matsugov.us/myproperty/detail.aspx?taxID=2357B04L012-1

http://www.matsugov.us/myproperty/detail.aspx?taxID=2357B04L010-1

The properties were assessed in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and each time the value of the buildings was assessed with $ 0,00. The picture of one of the "cabins" which we published above shows the state of the property about 2 years ago, according to Jeanne Devon from Mudflats.

(many thanks to sjkfromthebellyoftheplane!)