Maryland Senate candidate shaved at least $16,600 by claiming property tax exemptions for which she was ineligible
Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee for Maryland’s open Senate seat, has pledged to crack down on tax handouts for wealthy Americans. But when it comes to her own taxes, Alsobrooks isn’t afraid to bend the rules to pad her bottom line.
Since 2005, Alsobrooks has avoided paying her fair share in taxes on two properties she owns by claiming various exemptions for which she wasn’t eligible, CNN reported on Sunday. Alsobrooks has been registered to vote in Prince George’s County, Md., since 1995, but that didn’t stop her from shaving $14,000 from the property taxes on her home in northeast Washington, D.C., between 2005 and 2017 by improperly claiming an exemption meant only for primary residents of the district. Alsobrooks, 53, also improperly claimed a senior citizen tax break on her D.C. property that cut her tax bills on the home in half, CNN reported.
Alsobrooks admitted wrongdoing in a statement through her senior adviser Connor Lounsbury, who told CNN that Alsobrooks was not aware she was claiming any exemptions on her Washington, D.C., home, which she took over from her grandparents after they moved out in 2005. Lounsbury said Alsobrooks has contacted D.C. authorities to “resolve the issue and make any necessary payment.”
Alsobrooks’s tax delinquency could open her up to charges of hypocrisy as she battles former Maryland governor Larry Hogan in an unexpectedly tight race for the state’s open Senate seat. In March, as Alsobrooks claimed property tax breaks for which she was ineligible, she told Maryland voters that she would “fight for a fairer tax system that doesn’t deliver handouts to the top 1%.”
Her tax issues aren’t limited to her house in the nation’s capital. Alsobrooks improperly shaved at least $2,600 off her tax bill by claiming a homestead exemption for a second property she owns in Prince George’s County, where she has served as county executive since 2018. But the home isn’t Alsobrooks’s primary residence either—she has been renting it out since around 2021, when she applied for a license to start renting the property. Alsobrooks earned between $15,000 and $50,000 in rental income from the property in 2023, she reported in her Senate financial disclosure.
Hogan said Alsobrooks’s claim that she was unaware she was improperly claiming property tax exemptions doesn’t pass the smell test. The former governor noted in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon that part of Alsobrooks’s job as the county executive of Prince George’s County is to enforce the property tax laws she bent for her financial benefit.
“It’s deeply disturbing that Angela Alsobrooks thinks the rules don’t apply to her,” a Hogan campaign spokesman told the Free Beacon. “She campaigns on raising taxes while failing to pay her own and taking advantage of tax credits reserved for the poor and elderly. She claims to be unaware of tax laws it was her job to enforce. Governor Hogan has always stood up for taxpayers and in the Senate he will continue to fight for fairness and fiscal responsibility.”
Original News Source – Washington Free Beacon
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