Here’s a guy who’s living in one place and voting in another. Perhaps this is voter fraud? This is from the Dayton Daily News
Residency questions continue to dog Husted
Husted claimed a tax break on a Kettering house; his wife got a break on another home
Related article: Tax breaks raise doubts
By Lynn Hulsey
Staff Writer
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Photos
Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, who is running for the 6th District Ohio Senate seat, says the house at 148 Sherbrooke Drive, Kettering, is his residence.Click to enlarge
Husted, who was elected in 2000 and represents the 37th House District, also lives with his wife and children at 2672 Coventry Road in Upper Arlington.Click to enlarge
His wife, Tina Husted, owned the house until she sold it this summer and bought the house at 2305 Haverford Road, Upper Arlington. Rep. Husted said they are living in the Coventry Road house while renovating the Haverford Road house.Click to enlarge
DAYTON — Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, has long claimed that although he lives with his family in Upper Arlington, his real home is in his district in Kettering.
But legal documents involving property owned by Husted and his wife, Tina, raise new questions about his principal place of residence.
Those documents show that Jon and Tina Husted received a property tax break on the Upper Arlington home she owned at the same time he got a tax reduction for his Kettering home.
Ohio law says a couple can only take that tax reduction on one home.
Montgomery County Auditor Karl Keith, a Democrat, and Franklin County Auditor Joe Testa, a Republican, said they will investigate to see if the law was broken. Since they married in 2005, Jon and Tina Husted each claimed a separate house as a primary residence on legal documents that trigger the 2.5 percent property tax reduction for owner-occupied homes.
“The 2.5 percent reduction is meant to be on one property and one property only. It’s supposed to be your primary residence,” said Keith. “Those are legal documents. You are signing those documents under penalty of perjury.”
A “principal residence” is a person’s legal, permanent residence and used to determine where a person can vote, according to John Kohlstrand, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Taxation.
By law, Husted cannot run for the Legislature if he does not live in his district. He is registered to vote in Kettering.
Husted said he stays in an Upper Arlington house with his wife and children because his job as Speaker keeps him in Columbus more than most legislators.
He would not say how often he sleeps in his Kettering home, nor whether he plans to move his family to that house once he relinquishes his Speaker duties this year, or if he is elected to the Ohio 6th District Senate seat.
His opponent in that race, Democrat John Doll, said Husted should forfeit his seat if it turns out he does not legally reside in the district.
Husted said he does live in the district and was unaware of the tax issue. It did not involve a great deal of money. Between 2005 and 2007, the property tax reduction saved the Husteds $577.04 on Tina’s house and $205.08 on his house.
“Along the lines of everything you asked me today, with technical details and all these kinds of things, at this point I don’t know that anybody has questioned whether I’ve done a great job,” Husted said. “I will continue to do a great job.”
