Following revelations yesterday by San Diego City Council District 6 candidate Carol Kim that her opponent, Chris Cate may have committed tax fraud by continuing to receive discounts on his Carlsbad home after he moved to Mira Mesa, it has been revealed that the mix-up was due to an error by the County of San Diego.
In a letter to Cate, dated Oct. 1 Staci Bartlett, Assistant Division Chief Records Division of the County wrote, “… due to an error in our records your property above ( Carlsbad) benefited from the Homeowner’s Exemption for Tax Years 2013 and 2014. Therefore we are cancelling the Homeowners Exemption for those years.”
In a statement Cate said, “It is completely irresponsible for my opponent to resort to making criminal accusations that are completely untrue. The County in fact made a mistake by not processing the correct paperwork that I submitted to the County Assessor’s office on June 26, 2013. The County Assessor’s Office has apologized and has told me it will reassess me and write a letter of apology for their mistake.
“This stunt is the latest example of Carol Kim attempting to mislead the voters of District 6 and divert attention from the real issues and her lack of experience.”
However, despite the County’s admission Kim focused on Cate’s failure to notice the error and pay his full property tax bill. “The bottom line is Chris Cate has now admitted he received a tax break for a property in which he doesn’t live,” a Kim spokeswoman told the UT. “Are we to believe that the vice president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association doesn’t know how to read his own property tax bill?”
