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State Representative Paul Thissen
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-5375
For more information contact: Michael Howard 651-296-8873
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Leidiger owes explanation for government loan and unpaid taxes
This week a Minnesota blog uncovered public documents that show State Representative Ernie Leidiger (R- Mayer) owes over $144,000 in unpaid state and federal taxes.
According to the report, the unpaid state taxes are “sales & use tax” meaning a failure to pay the state sales taxes collected from purchases made by customers of Leidiger’s business, and “Withholding Tax,” meaning unpaid taxes the state withheld from employee’s paychecks.
The news of Leidiger’s unpaid taxes comes after reports that Leidiger’s business accepted a $500,000 federal small business loans in 2009. And according to the public documents, Leidiger’s unpaid tax troubles began soon after he accepted this loan.
House Minority Leader Paul Thissen released the following statement calling on Representative Leidiger to explain his actions to his constituents and the people of Minnesota.
“Representative Ernie Leidiger, like his Republican legislative colleagues, spent the last two years railing against government at all levels. It comes as a surprise to find out that Leidiger's business happily took half a million dollars in taxpayer support in 2009.
But far more troubling than this slice of political hypocrisy is the fact that Representative Leidiger has apparently failed to pay more than $140,000 in federal and state taxes.
Rep. Leidiger owes an immediate explanation to his constituents and to the millions of small businesses and families across Minnesota who play by the rules every day, year after year.
Unfortunately, there is also a parallel between Rep. Leigider's personal fiscal irresponsibility and Republican legislative accounting. Minnesota Republican legislators passed a budget to end the longest shutdown in state history by borrowing billions from our schools with no plan to pay them back in full and left the state budget with a multi-billion deficit – and now they have the nerve to claim the state has a surplus.
Running from reality only makes things worse. I hope Rep. Leidiger will now do the right thing and come forward with an explanation to his constituents and the people of Minnesota. If he does not, I fully expect Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers to take appropriate action.”
The original story as reported by the blog Left.mn can be found here: http://left.mn/2012/09/gop-rep-ernie-leidiger-owes-144000-in-unpaid-taxes/
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