DNC and Dems’ Private Club Delinquent on Taxes 16 Times in 7 Years (PJM Exclusive)
The Democratic National Committee and the party’s private club in the nation’s capitol have been delinquent with tax payments on sixteen separate occasions over the last seven years, Pajamas Media has learned.
According to District of Columbia government records, since 2004 the Democrats’ main political committee and its National Democratic Club — an exclusive restaurant and hideaway on Capitol Hill where prominent Democrats and their guests dine — have been hit with fines and interest penalties in excess of $115,000 for failure to pay their property taxes on time.
Officials at the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue reviewed tax records with Pajamas Media. Government records here and here paint a picture of two highly visible political establishments that have been tax deadbeats for most of the last seven years. This year, the club fell so far into tax arrears that it was listed as part of a D.C. government “tax sale” in August. The DNC and the club finally paid the property taxes in September to dodge a government seizure and a public auction sale.
The D.C. government requires owners of property to pay their taxes twice a year — in March and September. Records show the Democratic National Committee was delinquent six times, and the club missed payments ten times when facing the last fourteen tax deadlines.
In 2009, the club failed to pay its taxes a total of 15 months after the two tax deadlines. That year it was fined and penalized four times, amounting to $15,339 in fines and penalties.
It also appears that the national Democrats have had a tough time running their private club as a business — even with lucrative IRS tax breaks. In 2004 the restaurant acquired federal tax exempt status as a “private club.”
Not only did the DNC and the club repeatedly fail to pay their taxes on time, they were deep in debt. Year-over-year operating has been in the red, and they have been perilously drawing down their financial reserves. They were faced with a labor contract they could not afford, and they even lost their chef.
In its March 2010 newsletter, National Democratic Club outgoing president Scott Nishioki sounded more like a Republican in his farewell address in talking about the club’s woes, writing:
Two years ago, when I convened my first Board of Governors meeting, our highest priority was addressing the Club’s financial problems. At the rate that the Club was drawing down its reserves, it would have been just a matter of time before drastic moves would need to be taken. Fortunately, with the support of the Board and the Club’s members, we increased initiation fees, monthly dues, and drink prices, and imposed cost cutting measures that have allowed the Club to turn the financial corner, at least for now.
[...]
For the first time in many years, we ended the year, 2009, with a surplus.
Despite Nishioki’s talk, the club was so delinquent, the D.C. government put the restaurant up for sale on August 12.
Reached via telephone, the current president of the National Democratic Club, Ted Mastroianni, said he had no comment about his predecessor’s remarks regarding the financial peril of the club.
I’m shocked.
The DNC is not only paying taxes, but they’re penalized for being late? Tim Geithner needs to get in on this ASAP.
Even now, our resident lefty trolls are desperately searching KOS, HuffPo, and the Democratic Underground for even one Republican in the last 200 years who’s been a day late on his taxes, so that they can point and scream, “Look, the Republicans do it tooooooooooo!”
That seems to be their response to every Democrat scandal, why should this one be any different?
It’s not hard to find at all. Far-right wing media celebrity Sarah Palin was a tax cheat. Too bad the lamestream media didn’t report on it.
“Too bad the lamestream media didn’t report on it.”
Wow.
What an incredibly, on-it’s-face, ignorant statement. They have torn her life upside-down… and they got nothing! They HATE her! If there were any evidence of being a tax-cheat, the Old Media would have screamed it from the rooftops!
The fact that even the Ministry of Propaganda cannot find a starting point tells you just how squeaky clean she is. Could your life handle the kind of scrutiny she has endured? Do you not understand how amazing it is that hers can?
You are a hate-filled fool.
You keep telling yourself that, kiddo. Maybe, just maybe, if you click your heels together and say, “There’s no place like home,” it’ll just be true. The fact of the matter is that Sarah “Per Diem” Palin was found to owe back taxes on thousands of dollars in expense money she received while living at home. Furthermore, she skirted her property tax obligations.
This is a woman who has continually put herself above the tax laws at the expense of the people of Alaska. How you can call her squeaky clean is beyond any rational comprehension. I’ll just chalk that up to extreme partisanship on your behalf.
Oh, and by lamestream media, I was referring to the community organizers on Fox News and AM radio. Truly the lamestream media.
Hi Dr Really Silly Kyber. “Really” pops up quite a bit. Must be rehearsing the Name Game with the Funhouse Mirror.
“There’s no place like home…” Toto as Kyber? Alice as Dorothy?
Yeah that cesspool looks better every day. Truth proof.
How do you hang pictures of Mr. President on the walls?
“Oh, and by lamestream media…”
You get that concept. Amazing. “Lamestream media” “Really” exists.
“…community organizers…” “Really”, Wow Silly, that too. “,…community organizers…” can be a bad? Careful, Mr. President and the Patriot Act are monitoring!
“Truly”, “Oh”, “Oh”, “Oh”, “Oh”, “Oh”, “Oh”. Lame-O.
Whatever.
Ah, yes. The “extra cabins”. Whatever did happen to that issue? Why did your favorite news outlets drop the issue? They certainly pounded every other drum they could reach, why not that one? Were those “cabins” actually stacks of firewood?
Thanks for proving me right… and being so absolutely clueless that you didn’t realize that was exactly what you were doing.
Go think up a new name, troll.
What do you want to bet that the reason they are having trouble paying their bills is that they allow members to run tabs… big tabs that never get paid? Kinda like the House Bank and all the bad checks?
This looks like a fine place to look for ethics scandals to wipe out more of these entrenched Dems in the next election!
Not only do they not pay taxes, but they get their wining and dining gratis. Paying for ANYTHING is for the little people!
“Isn’t paying higher taxes patriotic?” Of course it is; that’s why Demonrats do everything in their power to avoid doing so.
What else would you expect from the democRATS! Their mantra is DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO! WHAT A BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES! I can hardly wait till Tuesday!
The National Democratic Club, at 30 Ivy Street S.E., is in the nation’s capital, not in the nation’s capitol. You knew that, I hope.
I am truly shocked, a democRat organization doing like their elected/appointed officials and not paying taxes! The shock is almost too much to bare.