How Roy Barnes' $7K Tax Debt Affects Me

I don't know Roy Barnes personally, but he still asked me to overlook his "accounting" error and to not mind the fact that Georgia lost $7,500 in revenue in 2008 and 2009 because of it. No, it wasn't a personal phone call fielded from the politician. It was at a campaign event reported on by the AJC where Roy made his appeal to me and the rest of the taxpaying state. But it affected me on a personal level, just like it did you if you live in Georgia.

Roy Barnes might have gotten a little more understanding from me, personally, on the issue if he hadn't of went after another candidate for the same thing a few weeks back. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, in my opinion.

Either way, Roy has cost the state $7,500 from his own estimation and as a Georgia citizen that inevitably affected me and the rest of the state, even if only slightly through paying a few pennies more in other taxes to make up for it.

I lost even more confidence in politicians

The Georgia gubernatorial candidate's financial faux pas cost our fair state money we sure could use now, even if it is only in the low thousands. But more importantly, it weakened my already small trust of political candidates. So it cost me personally.

Roy expected perfection and accurate record-keeping from his opponent Nathan Deal, but he then preceded to offer up me and the rest of the taxpayer's inaccurate record-keeping results himself, with his 2008 and 2009 tax returns. But Roy thinks I--and you--should just look over his blunder.

On that return, the AJC reported--and Roy Barnes admitted to--taking an improper tax break he wasn't qualified for during '08 and again in '09. Roy and his wife had given their daughter and her husband one of their homes located on their properties he told the audience at the campaign event. But his accountant then continued to use it as a tax deduction for Roy, as an error, he concluded.

How Roy Barnes' record-keeping is costing me financially

I'm not a millionaire like Roy Barnes. I don't have houses I can give away to my children, and I certainly don't have an accountant I can blame my financial record-keeping on if I were to run for political office.

Like other Georgians I'm just a citizen who needs to know that I will not be suffering the consequences in the future for politicians who don't pay their taxes when they easily could. Georgia needs all the revenue it can get. I can't afford to pick up Roy's tab when his accountant makes a $7,000 error. Can you?

Every time Roy or any other politician skirts the taxpaying requirement, it hits my pocket book and yours. We carry more of the financial responsibility passed on in our property taxes and other taxes the state imposes. It is truly a trickle down economic world. And Roy Barnes failure to pay $7,500 in tax monies in 2008 and 2009 was paid for by me and you in some way in the government coffers.

Resources: First person point of view and "Roy Barnes Amends Tax Return," AJC.com