By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN and DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Theresa Gavarone’s attack ads accusing Kelly Wicks of failing to pay his taxes neglect to mention that a family business she is affiliated with is guilty of a similar offense – for even more money.
According to the Wood County Clerk of Courts, Gavarone’s business, Lex Loci, was issued a tax lien by the state of Ohio in 2008.
“It’s important to set the record straight here: Rep. Gavarone is mudslinging her way through this campaign, when in fact her own family business failed to pay their taxes,” said Aaron Fisher, executive director of the Ohio House Democratic Caucus. “It just doesn’t add up.”
Wood County Clerk of Courts records show that one of the businesses owned by Jim and Theresa Gavarone, Mr. Spots, was delinquent in withholding taxes by $864.61 in 2008. A lien was placed on the property by the state at that time.
The campaign for Gavarone, a Republican who is currently filling the remainder of the state representative term for Tim Brown, has sent out multiple mailers and is running a television ad accusing Wicks, a Democrat, of failing to pay his taxes.
The issue was also raised in a push poll done last August. In the poll, residents were asked their reactions to suppositions about both candidates in the race. Most questions about Wicks were negative.
Two of those issues, including the tax issue and Wicks’ support for accepting federal dollars to explore developing passenger train service in the state have figured heavily in the Republican campaign materials.
The most recent mailer, this week, states that Wicks “Didn’t pay his taxes. Shouldn’t be in charge of ours.”
The ads fail to mention that Wicks missed a mid-year deadline for personal property taxes totaling $148.04 at his business, Grounds For Thought, in downtown Bowling Green. Wood County Treasurer Jill Engle said Wicks filed a tax return in April 2002, and paid half of the taxes owed with the return. The other half was then due in October 2002. The remaining amount, $148.04, was paid on April 21, 2003.
The Wood County Auditor’s Office automatically placed a lien on the property in January 2003 when the mid-year deadline was missed.
Wicks has said he paid the amount a few days after being made aware that it was delinquent.
At the recent League of Women Voters candidate forum in Bowling Green, Gavarone denied any involvement or previous knowledge of the negative ads about her opponent.
She said the negative ads about Wicks were “produced out of Columbus and mailed out of Columbus.”
“Rep. Gavarone’s misrepresentation of the facts is a clear indication that she is not fit to serve the voters of the 3rd House district,” Fisher said. “Her continued attacks on Wicks are outrageous, low and hypocritical, and she should apologize for trying to mislead voters.”
The chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, Matthew Borges, whose name is on the Wicks attack ads, has not returned a phone call from BG Independent News.
On Thursday, Gavarone said that the tax lien occurred before she had ownership in the business. She has said she became a partner of the now 30-year-old eatery in 2010.
Asked about the mailers and television ads, Gavarone said: “I don’t know who put them out.” When it was then pointed out that the source information was printed directly on the flyers she responded: “I don’t coordinate with them.”
But Gavarone does appear in an anti-Wicks ad.
She said of the negative advertising: “I was not happy, it wasn’t something I would have chosen to do.”
Wicks said Thursday that even if Gavarone was initially unaware of the content of the ads, “she is complicit in letting them continue.”
“It’s unfortunate that they feel they need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars” on the negative ads, Wicks said. He questioned why Gavarone’s campaign isn’t “building up their candidate rather than tearing my campaign down.”
