As quickly as it popped up on the political radar, Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado’s tax problem has disappeared.
The Maldonado family’s Santa Maria-based farming business, Agro-Jal Farming Enterprises, was recently saddled with an $111,146 tax lien after the Internal Revenue Service claimed company officials used a fleet of trucks for personal purposes.
Maldonado, who is facing an election this November, announced through his campaign on July 26 that the taxes had been paid in full and the lien had been lifted.
Campaign officials also released a statement in which Maldonado’s brother, Frank—who is also president of Agro-Jal Farming Enterprises—took responsibility for not paying the bill.
In the statement, Frank said his brother wanted to pay the lien after it was levied in April, but was outvoted by the other two company board members.
“What the two of us failed to realize was that even if Agro-Jal’s actions were 100 percent proper, the lien filed while we were disputing the bill would cause great political embarrassment to Abel,” Frank Maldonado said in the statement.
He added that the company paid the lien “under protest” because the directors “cannot sit by and see a family member unfairly tarnished by a board decision he strongly opposed.”
Agro-Jal has incurred about $294,000 in tax liens, ranging from federal to local agencies, since 1992, according to public records. The most recent lien was paid off shortly after being made public by the Los Angeles Times.
Abel Maldonado, a former California senator, was appointed this year to serve as lieutenant governor. He’ll defend his position against Gavin Newsom, the Democratic mayor of San Francisco, in the November general election.
This article appears in Aug 5-12, 2010.