March 15, 2009
Another tax cheat
Last fall the AT reported on a couple of instances in which members of Congress seemed to be confused as to where they lived, sometimes in order to claim tax benefits for which they were not entitled and sometimes to maintain the facade that they lived within the boundaries of the district they claimed to represent. We now have another case of residential confusion. This time a New York Democrat, Eliot Engel, and his wife claim to live in a large house in Maryland purchased in 1993 for purposes of that state's property tax exemption while Eliot files his income tax returns as a resident of New York, not Maryland. The self proclaimed "life long resident of the Bronx" rents an apartment in his district.
Mr. Engel was re-elected at least five times to represent the Bronx while property tax documents indicated his primary residence was in Potomac.
New York and federal laws require that representatives be inhabitants of the state they represent when they are elected.
Note that neither the New York Times or the Daily News report Engel's party designation.