Dennis Shulman for U.S. Congress: Sensible Leadership for New Jersey’s 5th District

October 12th, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sunday, October 12th
Contact: Jeff Hauser, 201-767-8162, jeff@shulmanforcongress.com

  
Northern New Jersey Deserves Answers to Serious Ethical and Legal Questions Concerning Garrett’s Tax Avoidance Scheme
 
Haworth, NJ -Shulman for Congress campaign manager Jeff Hauser today issued the following statement in response to the Star-Ledger article investigating Scott Garrett’s tax avoidance scheme. http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-2/1223785014241940.xml&coll=1
 
“Today’s Star-Ledger article reveals many new questions concerning Scott Garrett’s tax avoidance scheme.  Indeed, the evidence of Garrett’s corruption is even stronger now than before.  Scott Garrett is cheating on his state and federal taxes.
 
We call upon the relevant authorities to address the serious legal issues raised by Garrett’s refusal to pay his fair share of taxes.  Pretend farmers should not receive massive tax breaks designed to help real farmers, politicians should not knowingly signing their name to false tax forms, and political cronies should not cover up for powerful career politicians like Scott Garrett.
 
Scott Garrett and his facilitators need to answer for their corruption.
 
Scott Garrett has now admitted to cheating on his federal income taxes.  We call on the House Ethics Committee and the Internal Revenue Service to investigate his crimes immediately, and we call upon Garrett to release all of his tax records - local, state, and federal - to identify what other ways he is gaming the system.”
 
New questions raised by the Star-Ledger article:
 
Why has Garrett crony Melissa Rockwell, the Wantage Township tax assessor, refused repeated public document requests to substantiate her claims that Garrett’s property meets New Jersey’s requirements for a farmland?  The Shulman campaign will yet again file open records requests Monday, and hopes they will be complied with fully this time.

Repeated requests for Rockwell’s basis for determining that Garrett has the requisite 5.20 acres under an active woodlot management program or is meeting the $520 a year income requirement were denied.  Rockwell indeed informed Catey Moore, a lifelong NJ-5 resident, that farmland assessment decisions were “entirely” within her “discretion.”

The most recent public information concerning the value of “trees and shrubs” sold from Garrett’s pretend farm comes from Garrett’s 2001 federal income disclosure ($600) and from a 2002 Bergen Record article in which Garrett claimed his brother sold $700 worth of products from the farm.  Garrett is now claiming that the land he owns completely generates $14,625 in revenue for his brother. 

While it is generous of Garrett to give the proceeds from his land to his brother, it is a clear matter of federal tax law that income from property is taxed to “the taxpayer ‘who owns or controls the source of the income.”  Comm’r v. Banks, 543 U.S. 426, 434 (2005) (quoting Helvering v. Horst, 311 U.S. 112, 116-17 (1940)). Thus, “a taxpayer cannot exclude an economic gain from gross income by assigning the gain in advance to another party.”  Banks, 543 U.S. at 433.  Since it is Scott Garrett’s property that produced the trees, at least some portions of the tree-proceeds are his. 

Thus, since Garrett admits that he is not declaring to the IRS his substantial portion of nearly $15,000 in income, Scott Garrett is cheating on his federal taxes.
 
The following questions, raised earlier, remain unanswered:

Why is Scott Garrett failing to disclose to the public his largest asset, land potentially worth nearly $2 million?  Federal ethics laws mandate disclosure of all assets valued at more than $1,000 that generate more than $200 a year — there is even a way to list the asset and still mark that the income he received from the asset was $0.  Garrett uses his income to avoid state taxes while refusing to report the income to the federal government.

Does Scott Garrett actually have 5.20 acres under “active woodlot management,” rather than just merely having old growth trees on his estate?  Google Maps and Microsoft Earth suggest no - and while New Jersey politicians who take this farmland assessment historically give tours to reporters, Garrett has refused to do so.  What is he hiding?
 
BACKGROUND:
 
Shulman for Congress recently launched an ad across the district assailing Garrett’s property tax shenanigans surrounding land he has hidden from his federally mandated asset disclosure.  The ad and backup material can be found at www.GarrettShrubs.com.
The Bergen Record has noted that “a similar attack of being a fake farmer cost Ellen Karcher, a Democratic state senator from Monmouth County, her seat in 2007.” http://www.northjersey.com/politics/Fake_farmer_TV_ad_could_hurt_Garrett_.html
New Jersey Law can be found at:  www.state.nj.us/agriculture/FarmlandAssessmentGuide.pdf
 
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Dennis Shulman was recently profiled by The New Yorker and Time as momentum for his campaign continues to grow, and recent polling in the district validates the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s decision to upgrade NJ-5 as an “Emerging Race” and to buy advertising time in the district.  Only 31% of likely voters in NJ-5 plan to re-elect Garrett and, by a 68-17% margin, the district seeks change from George Bush’s policies.

Dr. Dennis Shulman has gained international recognition for his 30 years of work as a psychologist, educator, and author.  An ordained rabbi for five years and blind since childhood, he has lived in New Jersey’s Fifth District for more than 25 years with his wife, Dr. Pamela Tropper, an obstetrician. They have two adult daughters.

Additional background on Dr. Dennis Shulman and his challenge to Scott Garrett:
“Rabbi With the Compelling Back Story Is Not to Be Ruled Out,” Peter Applebome, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/nyregion/14towns.html

“A Rabbi in Congress?,” Adam Goodman, Time, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1824434,00.html

“On the Trail: First Timer,” Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker, http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/07/28/080728ta_talk_toobin

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