Obama, McCain: Who's really paying their fair share?

This is a bit off track for me, posting blog style. But I couldn’t resist weighing in on the latest flap in the pres race, when it turned to home ownership.

You see, I admit to being a homeowner — family and all. And my property taxes are, well, a pain in the posterior of my existence. But I pay them willingly (or they would take my house) in the belief, naively so, maybe, that the schools, city and county services they help to fund are important to fostering a better community.

Two things that tick me off on that front are fraud, waste and abuse on the part of the government entities collecting the taxes; and folks who find ways to skimp or otherwise cheat out paying their fair share. I don’t think I’m alone in that inclination.

So, with the latest flap over the McCain/Obama homeownership one-upmanship, I decided to do some time reflectin’. Remember, this was all triggered by McCain’s recent public statement seemingly indicating that he didn’t know how many homes he actually owns.

And it appears he does have a lot of properties to keep track of in his life, as NPR notes:

Property records reviewed by The Associated Press show McCain and his family appear to own at least eight homes: A ranch and two condos in Arizona; three condos in Coronado, Calif.; a condo in La Jolla, Calif.; and another in Arlington, Va. The number of houses is a bit trickier to determine since the ranch has at least four houses and a two-story cabin on it.

For Obama, it’s an easier thing to keep in sight, since he only owns one million dollar-plus home, as the Washington Post indicates in a story referencing a statement the candidate made at a campaign rally in Virginia:

But if you're like me, and you've got one house, or you are like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so they don't lose their home, you might have a different perspective.

In taking in all the blog buzz making honey for the ticker counts today about this home-ownership issue, I have to come to grips with my lowly place in life and accept that neither of these folks (presidential wannabes) are really in my income bracket. They live in parts of town where I worry, given my often-scruffy appearance, that the cops would take offense at my presence. I have to be honest about that.

Still, I have a problem with some of the class-based blogging now going on over the issue, mostly with the accuracy of the figures.

For example, a blog fronted by the Guardian, a respectable U.K. newspaper, claims McCain’s home in Phoenix, a condo complex, is “reportedly worth $4.6M.”

A Raw Story — such a Lefty name — report echoes that figure (and ups the ante by reporting that the McCain's total home-sweet-home interests approach $14 million in value). And a DailyKos diary (one of many but not all part of the Orange Revolution) fresh off the Internet push-that-button news cycle throws in some multi-million dollar figures on the McCains’ Coronado, Calif. property.

So it goes on that front … quick research on a fast-breaking story it seems to me, but no appraisal documents posted to back them up. So I’m suspicious, given the fluctuating nature of real estate market in the post-subprime meltdown world.

And then there’s the comeback from the “Maverick” (as in the old TV show Dallas) McCain’s camp, trying to turn this latest campaign spitting match back against Obama in a hastily produced ad, as promoted by the Washington Post:

Barack Obama knows a lot about housing problems. One of his biggest fundraisers helped him buy his million-dollar mansion. Purchasing part of the property he couldn't afford. From Obama, Rezko got political favors including 14 million from taxpayers. Now, he's a convicted felon, facing jail. That's a housing problem.

Obviously McCain hasn’t spent a lot of time in Chicago, or he’d know you can’t buy a cup of coffee in the Second City without being linked to the machine somehow. That’s just the nature of Daley City in the post-Al Capone-era – or so they say.

But back to my original point, about property taxes. I figure both of these men running for president should be stand-up guys, or why vote for them. They should be willing to assume the burden of their wealth for the benefit of the larger community, and pay their fair share, right?

And both of these men did release to the public their 2007 federal income tax returns.

McCain, though, pulled his punch a bit, and filed his return under the “married filing separately” status, so he could better conceal the fortune he shares with his wife — Cindy “the beer baron heiress” McCain. I didn’t really like that, to be honest … makes me suspicious of his motives.

Hell, I’m married, and I know filing under that status would cost me a ton more money, so why did he do it, since he appears happily married the second time around — or so it goes through my mind, since he surely benefits from a lifestyle enriched by his wife’s fortune.

But it is what it is, and I will take both these men at their words for now — that they are selfless public servants in it for the warm feeling they get out of being superhumanly altruistic — even though I would cut both of them the slack to be merely human, ambitious, a bit selfish and even economically narcissistic, so long as they turn out to be presidential leaders who act, as much as is possible, in the bigger interest of the nation (meaning) … “We the people.”

To judge that eventuality, I’d like to know how each of them act prior to assuming the throne.

That is my litmus test, as a property owner in this case. I want to see that each of them is paying their fair share, just like I am, when it comes to the goal of making our communities better. All politics is local after all.

In that vein, I decided to insert an IV tube into each man’s 2007 federal tax returns, to see what each candidate owned up to bleeding out in property taxes toward their communities, figuring that would be one measure of who is a more salt of the earth candidate (as each now jockeys for that title).

And here’s the balance sheet, based on what each candidate reported in real estate taxes paid on their home(s) in 2007 — check the returns yourself here (Obama [takes a while, more thorough filing] and McCain), on line 6 of Schedule A (real estate taxes).

McCain: $3,468

Obama: $22,162

I know, I know … some people will claim that’s not a fair comparison, since McCain’s wife probably paid most of the taxes on their eight or so, or many more, properties, which wouldn’t be reflected in McCain’s “married filing separately” dodge of public accountability. But others might claim his wife found a way to avoid her fair share of that community burden through the benefit of smart accountants and tax shelters.

In my mind, the only way we could know for sure is if she agreed to release her tax returns, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

So we are left with the comparison we have available. McCain has to stand as his own man in this case, it seems, absent the mantra of “my wife made me do it.”

And in that measure, McCain, who at least vicariously through his wife, enjoys the benefit of a huge property stake in several communities (in Arizona, Virginia and California that we know of) admits to only paying $3,468 in property taxes in 2007. That’s about what the tax bill would be for a lower-middle class home in most medium-sized cities.

Obama, who on the other hand owns one home in the upscale range of the home market, offers proof that he doled out more than six times as much in property taxes in 2007 as did his rival for the presidential throne.

Now, based on that comparison, I have to say, as a property owner, I’d rather live in Obama’s community — given I expect that the services might be a bit better in his neighborhood. And, it just seems, again as a property owner, that Obama’s demonstrated he is far more transparent in divulging the share he’s paid toward the betterment of his community.

That’s not an endorsement in a larger sense of either candidate; just my read of who’s carrying their weight on the property tax front with respect to two folks who don’t live in my neighborhood but seek to run my country.