Yes, yes, yes. The list of Democrats is growing, who want to help save the planet and make sure we all are taken care of with higher taxes to pay for government run health care. And the same list is growing with those Democrats who are tax cheats, who don’t want to pay taxes. The latest is Ron Dellums, mayor of Oakland. Of course, he will probably get a pass because if anybody says anything bad about him, then they are automatically a racist…

By Henry K. Lee
San Francisco Chronicle
November 3, 2009

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and his wife failed to pay more than $239,000 in taxes over a three-year period, public records show.

Dellums, 73, and his wife, Cynthia, 55, who acts as his unpaid adviser, are named in a lien issued by the Internal Revenue Service and filed with the Alameda County recorder’s office Oct. 14.

The lien says the couple failed to pay $124,198 in federal income taxes in 2005, $66,554 in 2006 and $48,246 in 2007, the year Dellums took office as mayor.

The tax lien was imposed on all the couple’s personal property, meaning they cannot pocket proceeds from any transactions without first paying off the IRS.

It is unclear whether the Dellumses own any real estate. Public records show that they live in a rented, four-bedroom, three-bathroom home with 3,200 square feet on Skyline Boulevard in the Oakland hills.

A spokesman for Dellums, Paul Rose, did not immediately respond to requests for comment today on the mayor’s tax problems, which were first reported Monday by the East Bay Express.

In 2005, the first year the couple allegedly failed to pay their full taxes, Ron Dellums headed a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, Dellums and Associates. It earned $90,000 in lobbying income, $70,000 from Rolls-Royce North America and $20,000 from AIDS Healthcare Foundation, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

In 2006, the lobbying firm received $100,000 from Verizon Communications, $20,000 from the Rolls-Royce group and $20,000 from the AIDS foundation.

It is not known what the Dellumses’ other sources of income were for those two years, although Ron Dellums is eligible for a congressional pension. Dellums founded his lobbying firm after retiring from Congress in 1998, where he had spent 14 terms.

In January 2007, Ron Dellums took over as mayor, a job that pays $184,000 a year. His wife does not have a paying job.

In July, Dellums, a stalwart of progressive ideals, announced a tax penalty amnesty program under which Oakland businesses with unpaid taxes or underreported gross receipts could file with the city without penalty during a three-month period ending Oct. 31.

“As Oakland deals with these difficult financial times, it is essential that all possible revenue – taxes and otherwise – are collected so that we can fund crucial services,” Dellums said in announcing the program.

“Obviously, any public official is supposed to be a role model and is supposed to obey the laws that the government is asking all the rest of us to obey,” Charlie Pine, an East Oakland resident, anti-crime activist and frequent Dellums critic, said today. “He didn’t disclose this. This has been germinating since 2005.”

Pine said he questioned Dellums’ ability to lead the city as a result of the tax issue. He said Dellums should consider resigning to preserve his legacy and so “Oakland can have a real mayor.”

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