By Dalia Diaz
On Friday, August 31, The Eagle–Tribune wrote an article on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax liens and penalties levied against former State Representative and current candidate for the 16th District. Federal lien document shows that $44,623 is owed and in delinquency by Marcos Devers.
A federal tax lien is the government’s legal claim against your property when you neglect or fail to pay a tax debt. The lien protects the government’s interest in all your property, including real estate, personal property, and financial assets. The Internal Revenue Service files a public document, the Notice of Federal Tax Lien, to alert creditors that the government has a legal right to your property. The IRS records shows that Devers has been having tax issues since tax year 2014, 2015 and 2016 and in four years, he has not resolved the issue. Again the issue will be resolved by paying.
We know and have read, of Devers past issues with debt and foreclosures of his homes, late OCPF filings, and more. Even more disturbing is the facts that at this moment his Florida property is still behind on mortgage by at least three years.
But here is the part that many people don’t realize is hypocritical. Mayor Rivera has run on the basis of calling every delinquent taxpayer for failing to pay property taxes to the city. He has accused and has commented, on the fact that his predecessor owed monies to the OCPF. One would like to believe that Mayor Rivera just doesn’t respect individuals who owed taxes to government agencies. Nope! Mayor Rivera has endorsed Marcos Devers and continues to support Devers in this coming election. After all, they are best buddies because they have the same enemy.
Perhaps corrupt incumbents are helped by increasing ideological polarization: partisans may understand a corrupt politician is a scoundrel, but at least he or she is ‘our scoundrel.’ Marko Klaasnja once said, “There have been studies made showing results that voters are more likely to choose corrupt politicians who agree with their position on an issue when issue salience is high.”
Professor Klaasnja is assistant professor of political science at Georgetown University and he specializes in comparative politics, political behavior, and political economy of democratic accountability. I recommend you look him up.
Voters’ ignorance means that many corrupt politicians get elected and/or stay in office. When it’s not voter ignorance, that places these corrupted individuals in office, then it must be that the voters really don’t care. In this case, it’s also the current mayor that does not care. If Devers neglects his political finances, he’s home finances and his business affairs, why should we trust him to represent us justly?
