Did Rahm Emanuel pay property taxs? Nope?

News broke last week that Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, lived rent- free for years in the home of Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) - and failed to disclose the gift, as congressional ethics rules mandate. But this is only the tip of Emanuel’s previously undislosed ethics problems.

One issue is the work Emanuel tossed the way of De Lauro’s husband. But the bigger one goes back to Emanuel’s days on the board of now-bankrupt mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Emanuel is a multimillionaire, but lived for the last five years for free in the tony Capitol Hill townhouse owned by De Lauro and her husband, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg.

During that time, he also served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - which gave Greenberg huge polling contracts. It paid Greenberg’s firm $239,996 in 2006 and $317,775 in 2008. (Emanuel’s own campaign committee has also paid Greenberg more than $50,000 since 2004.)

To be fair, Greenberg had polling contracts with the DCCC before - but each new election cycle brings its own set of consultants. And Emanuel was certainly generous with his roommate.

Emanuel never declared the substantial gift of free rent on any of his financial-disclosure forms. He and De Lauro claim that it was just allowable “hospitality” between colleagues. Hospitality - for five years?

Some experts suggest that it was also taxable income: Over five years, the free rent could easily add up to more than $100,000.

Here's some change you can believe in. http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2009/02/questions-remain-about-rahm-emanuels

Curiosity stirred about Rahm Emanuel's taxes ... again When the dogged work of an investigative blogger found that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had been living free of charge for several years in Congresswoman Rosa DeLaura's DC basement apartment, questions re-surfaced as to whether Emanuel's tax issues were more widespread. Because former U.S. Senator Tom Daschle was forced out of the Obama Administration's HHS Secretary spot due to his "forgetfulness" to report the luxury of a limousine driver at his beckoned call as a possible taxable income, tax queries focused back on Emanuel. (See Dick Morris' "Rahm's Rent is Just Tip of the Iceberg" HERE.)

With all those wheels grinding, a simple Google search turned up questions Illinois Review raised about Emanuel's Chicago property listings in November 2008, and the controversy as well as the vitriol stirred among loyal Cook County leftists for asking questions about Emanuel's 5th CD residential property taxes.

During that time of query, we explained the confusion and the resulting angry emails we received from the Cook County Assessor's office. It seemed peculiar that Emanuel's home, while located at 4228 North Hermitage, wasn't the base for his property tax payments listed on the assessor's web site records. We found the Emanuels not only own 4228, they acquired two valuable adjacent vacant lots to the north -- 4230 and 4232. The Cook County Assessor's website lists 4232 North Hermitage, an adjoining vacant lot as the location where those lots taxes are billed. Still, the Emanuels' home address is not listed on the Cook County Assessor's website HERE.

Cook County assessor's market value lists 4232 North Hermitage's vacant lots and adjoining two story resident at $630,219 in 2008. For a 2.5 bathroom, two or more story 62 plus year old house, the Emanuels paid almost $13,000 in Cook County property taxes in 2008.

Other houses on the street sans attached vacant lots, pay approximately $6000/year half of what the Emanuels pay for 4228, 4230 and 4232 North Hermitage. now merged into two lots, the Cook County assessors office told us in November.

The confusion in November 2008 over property taxes tied to the Emanuels' non-profit organization, which lists the 4228 North Hermitage home address as their non-profit's base office. While the Emanuels' are the key donors to their non-profit org, the recipients of the Emanuels' donations from the non-profit are the area local synagogue and its affiliated private school, where Mrs. Emanuel serves on the school's board of directors. Most recently, the synagogue received $30,000 from the Emanuel private charity fund.

Illinois Review's put together a short video of the property and the information gathered up to give visual perspective on the Emanuel property tax questions:

What a great system! Some people deserve to live rent free and game the tax system.

This has been out for awhile, but there hasn’t been any traction.

Democrats put own money into charitable foundations
Updated 1/29/2007 7:24 AM

By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Rep. Rahm Emanuel made millions as an investment banker. Sen. Evan Bayh had leftover cash after two successful campaigns for Indiana governor. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, became wealthy investing in real estate and technology firms.
It was with this money that each of these Democrats started a charitable foundation.

IT’S THE LAW: Dems fail to disclose roles in charities

Emanuel, Bayh and Nancy Pelosi are officers of the foundations that carry their names but failed to disclose the fact on their annual financial disclosure reports filed with Congress. Tax records show the foundations donated mostly to hometown charities that reflect the lawmakers’ personal and political attitudes. None of the foundations received donations from outside sources.

The oldest and most prominent of the three is the Paul and Nancy Pelosi Charitable Foundation. Created in 1992, the non-profit has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years. The charity reported having about $576,000 on hand at the end of 2005 after donating $316,000 to other charities that year.

Georgetown University, Paul Pelosi’s alma mater, was the biggest recipient of the foundation’s giving. Georgetown received nearly $300,000 since 2003, including $10,000 to the university’s Wall Street Alliance, a group that raises the university’s profile in the financial community. Vincent Wolfington, a Georgetown classmate and business partner of Paul Pelosi, was vice chairman of the alliance at the time of the donation.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art received more than $80,000 from the Pelosi foundation in recent years. Roselyne Swig, a longtime friend and financial backer of the House speaker, is on the museum’s board of directors. The congresswoman has represented a part of San Francisco since 1987.

The Rahm Emanuel and Amy Rule Charitable Trust was formed in 2002, when the Chicago lawmaker was first elected. The former Clinton White House aide and his wife, Amy Rule, are its only donors. Emanuel was an investment banker after serving in the White House.

The trust reported having $2,900 on hand at the end of 2005 after receiving $34,000 from Emanuel and donating more than $31,000.

During the past three years, Emanuel’s charity gave nearly $25,000 to the Anshe Emet synagogue and school in Chicago, and $15,000 to the foundation run by former president Bill Clinton. It also gave $14,000 to Marwen, a Chicago charity that provides art classes and other educational help to low-income children. Rule is on Marwen’s board.

The Evan and Susan Bayh Foundation, also formed in 2002, reported having $663,000 in assets at the end of 2005. It gave $55,000 in 2004 and 2005 to a charity that provides direct financial assistance to Indiana National Guard members and their families.

Nearly all of the foundation’s funding came from money left over from Bayh’s gubernatorial campaigns. Bayh served two terms as Indiana governor, leaving office in 1997. State law allows candidates to transfer campaign funds to charities.

Bayh doesn’t plan to raise any more money for the foundation, said Meghan Keck, his spokeswoman.

Posted 1/28/2007 10:15 PM ET

Since he’s a good Democrat, all is forgiven.

Since he’s a good Democrat, he’s not bound by the same laws that you and I are bound by.

Since he’s a good Democrat working in the White House, he will claim that political enemies brought up this story for political reasons only. He will claim that there are people out there who want this president to fail, and that they will come after anybody working in the White House to do that.

And he might just claim that he didn’t know there was any legal or ethical questions about what he was doing.

He can claim there is “no controlling legal authority” as Al Gore did about the Buddhist temple fundraisers, and avoid scrutiny because there is “no controlling legal authority” about living rent-free in someone else’s house.

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