Jul 30, 2008
Chicago Sun Times - GOP congressional candidate’s firms owed $59K in taxes
Concrete mogul Marty Ozinga's companies racked up $59,000 in unpaid taxes over the last 20 years, according to documents provided to the Sun-Times by political operatives.
The tax liens have been filed against the Republican congressional candidate's companies in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. Some are fines on his trucks that pour concrete in Chicago.
Ozinga is general manager of the 1,200-employee family-owned Ozinga Bros. based in Mokena. He stepped into the race to succeed Rep. Jerry Weller in April after GOP primary winner Tim Baldermann dropped out.
"This is shaping up to be pattern of ignoring and breaking the rules for his own personal gain, which raises a question: If he's going to break the rules for his own business, how can you trust him to carry out the people's business?" said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Most of Ozinga's late taxes appear to have eventually been paid.
The $59,000 in taxes is more than the $55,759 median household income in the south suburban 11th Congressional District.
But measured against the "tens of millions" of dollars in taxes Ozinga's companies have paid over the years, it's not so bad, said his spokesman, Andy Sere.
Ozinga's companies' attorneys told the campaign that more than $4,000 of the $20,000 in tax warrants the Lake County, Ind., Clerk's office still lists against Ozinga's companies have been "expunged," meaning the tax warrants should never have been issued.
Ozinga's campaign notes his Democratic opponent, state Sen. Debbie Halvorson was fined $44 after being late on a $910 real estate tax payment for her Springfield condominium. She also was fined $25 for letting a corporation she founded lapse after not using it.
"Ozinga Bros. makes its very best efforts to pay every nickel of the tens of millions of dollars in taxes it owes every year," Sere said. "The DCCC's claims strain credulity. Does anyone really believe that a company that gives away several million dollars to charity every year would purposefully evade a $200 tax payment here and there?
"No, and that's why this latest DCCC desperation ploy will not succeed in distracting voters from Debbie Halvorson's record of putting Rod Blagojevich and big-money special interests ahead of the working families she represents."
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