Voters won't fire tax-evading Riddick, even when pigs fly

I once worked with a guy who supported higher taxes. In fact, he never saw a levy he didn't like, and he griped constantly that Virginia was a "low-tax state."

As if that were a bad thing.

When Jim Gilmore campaigned for governor on a promise to abolish the hated car tax, this man sneered. Later, when I learned that the city was threatening to come after this same guy's wages because of delinquent personal property taxes, I was irate.

"Is it asking too much that people who push for higher taxes actually pay theirs?" I snapped at him.

Today I'm posing a similar question:

Is it too much to ask that politicians - especially those who are in a position to levy taxes on others - pay their own?

Hello, Norfolk City Councilman Paul Riddick. I'm talking about you and your latest problems.

During nearly 20 years on the council, Riddick's antics, race-baiting and bloviating have provided newspaper columnists and editorial writers with rich material. Most amusing, I suppose, was the Launched Lunchmeat Incident about 15 years ago when Riddick reportedly hurled a pound of sliced ham at the head of a shop clerk.

But there were more serious lapses in judgment, like Riddick's remarks after two police officers were shot during a 2004 drug bust at Military Circle. The councilman denounced not the gun-toting drug dealers, but the cops. He postulated that the police would never stage such an operation at a place "Jews frequent."

In a - pardon the expression - ham-handed attempt to pacify the outraged community, Riddick apologized and explained that he didn't really mean a place where Jewish people shopped, but that he'd been referring to "any rich middle-class" neighborhood.

Despite a fiery demeanor and a history of tax problems, Riddick has long been regarded as a strong voice for Norfolk's poor and downtrodden. He's been handily re-elected to his seat from Norfolk's Ward 4 in five successive elections.

That's unlikely to change even now that Riddick may be about to lose his family funeral business to the IRS. According to papers filed in federal court last week and a story in Thursday's Pilot, Riddick has failed to pay almost a quarter of a million dollars in taxes over the past 14 years.

His delinquencies allegedly break down this way: Between 2002 and 2011, Riddick failed to pay about $196,000 in income, Social Security and Medicare taxes. Between 1998 and 2009, he didn't pay $27,000 in unemployment taxes. He also owes the IRS about $23,000 in penalties.

More serious, though, is that according to the federal lawsuit, Riddick transferred ownership of his business to an LLC to evade taxes.

His tax troubles don't end with the feds, either. Norfolk officials say Riddick also owes $4,810 in back city taxes, $4,423 in business personal property taxes and $387 on a car that he bought for his business.

Let's consider, for a moment, where some of that missing tax money would have gone:

Social Security and Medicare monies help pensioners, the elderly, the disabled and those on fixed income - some of the same people Riddick represents. Unemployment taxes go into a pot to help folks who have lost their jobs. City taxes support schools, police and fire.

So save the sermons about Riddick's concern for the underprivileged. If this seasoned politician doesn't understand the importance of paying his fair share to keep society going, who does?

In an interview this week, Riddick acknowledged that he owed back taxes, but he said the IRS had inflated the amount. Then he blamed the rotten economy for his woes.

Fact is, Riddick is an embarrassment and it's time a worthy opponent emerged in Ward 4.

Someone who believes that those given the power to levy taxes also ought to pay them.

Kerry Dougherty, 757-446-2306,kerry.dougherty@cox.net,PilotOnline.com/dougherty