CARCIERI

Florida officials yesterday said they have received Governor Carcieri’s payment for back taxes on a condominium he owns there, but disputed his assertion that the bills and delinquent notices had been sent to the wrong address.

The Carcieris owed more than $12,000 in two years of back taxes on one of their two condominiums at the Sandpebble Beach condominium complex on Hutchinson Island in Stuart, Fla.

The governor and his wife, Suzanne, also own another vacation property, a $1.98-million summer home on Plum Beach in North Kingstown. Their main residence is a $1.4-million house on Kenyon Avenue in East Greenwich.

When the unpaid tax bill came to light on Wednesday, Carcieri said through his spokeswoman that he hadn’t known about the bill. The Carcieris owed $7,502 for the 2006 property taxes and $5,155 for the 2007 taxes.

Spokeswoman Amy Kempe said that Carcieri believed the tax bills must have been sent to his previous address on Pearl Street in East Greenwich, and he blamed it on a “clerical error” in the Martin County (Fla.) tax collector’s office. Carcieri sent payment by FedEx overnight, and it was redeemed yesterday afternoon. Carcieri’s daughter, Jill, and her husband, Charles Buckley, now live at the residence on Pearl Street, according to public tax and voting records.

However, the litigation and collections manager for Martin County said yesterday that the office sent the bill to the correct address last December after a clerk did a little research and found Carcieri’s current address on Kenyon Avenue.

The Carcieris are listed as the owners of two condominiums at 4540 N.E. Sandpebble Trace –– one assessed at $320,600, the other at $295,900, according to the Martin County tax collector’s office. The Carcieris had previously owned another condominium with Mrs. Carcieri’s brother, Stephen Owren, but quit-claimed the ownership to the Owrens in 2002, according to tax records.

The Carcieris had owned the $295,000 condominium since December 1998, but stopped paying taxes after 2005, according to the tax collector’s office. The tax collector sent out a tax bill for 2006, which was returned, and again in November 2007.

Then last December, one of the employees noticed that Carcieri’s name was listed as the new owner of another unit in the Sandpebble Beach complex, the one assessed at $320,600, said Anne Rose Farr, the litigation and collections manager at the Martin County tax collector’s office. The Carcieris had bought that condominium in April 2007 and the tax record included their Kenyon Avenue address, Farr said. That tax bill was paid on time.

So, the tax collector sent the tax bills and delinquent tax notices for the other unit to the Kenyon Avenue address. The Journal obtained a copy of a note that was posted on the Carcieris’ account on Dec. 18, 2007: “2007 tax bill returned –– found address of 50 Kenyon Ave., East Greenwich, RI 02818 on another property with the same owner. Also, delinquent tax notice returned, so I included a copy of that with the 2007 tax bill.”

Farr said the Carcieris didn’t respond. Meanwhile, different banks and trusts bought the certificates issued on the Carcieris’ back property taxes. The certificate holders could have applied for a tax deed on the condominium if it went for tax auction next April.

After Wednesday’s publicity about the taxes, Carcieri sent payment to the tax collector’s office. The governor’s office did not return a call for comment about the December mailing.

The discovery of Carcieri’s delinquent property taxes initially came from a question posed on the political blog www.rifuture.org about how many houses Carcieri owns. Republican presidential candidate John McCain had trouble answering the same question.

The governor’s tax woe story was picked up by the Florida media yesterday, where the Martin County tax collector’s office read that Carcieri was blaming them for not sending his bill. “We laughed about it,” Farr said.

Because of similar problems with out-of-state property owners, Florida has a state statute that puts the burden on the property owner to take responsibility for keeping track of their property tax bill. If the owner doesn’t receive a tax bill, it’s up to the owner to request the bill, Farr said. The property owner is also required to ensure the tax collector’s office has the proper address.

“This is not a new thing to us,” she added. “We’re always chasing them.”

amilkovi@projo.com