Story Published: Dec 7, 2009 at 8:06 PM PDT
Story Updated: Dec 7, 2009 at 8:06 PM PDT
Bill Sizemore
SALEM, Ore. – Oregon’s most well-known initiative sponsor to limit taxes said Monday he’s not guilty of evading payment of his own taxes and the state and public-employee unions are out to get him.
Bill Sizemore and his wife, Cindy, each face three charges of tax evasion for failing to file tax returns for the past three years. The charges were announced last week by Oregon Attorney General John Kroger.
Bill Sizemore said the charges are politically motivated and is the price he’s paid for standing up to the unions in Oregon.
“It’s all designed for one purpose,” Sizemore said Monday after being formally charged in Marion County Court. “It’s not about me having done anything wrong. It’s about me having put measures on the ballot that they don’t want to spend money fighting.”
All this comes as Sizemore makes a run for the governor’s office. He has said on the NW Republican blog site that he might have to run “from inside a jail cell.”
In the meantime, state prosecutors filed an unusual motion that will allow them to seek a stiffer sentence for Sizemore if he is found guilty.
Sizemore said he and his wife are scared because he said the state’s public-employee unions and the Oregon attorney general are in cahoots.
“This is a pretty powerful machine trying to put me in prison,” he said.
Hanna Vaandering, the vice president of the Oregon Education Association, said there was no conspiracy to bring tax-evasion charges against Sizemore.
“Mr. Sizemore is not above the law,” Vaandering said. “Mr. Sizemore needs to pay his taxes as all Oregonians do.”
Portland tax attorney Bob Weaver, of Garvey Schubert Barer, said it can be difficult to find someone guilty of tax evasion.
“You can’t take a fingerprint. There is no DNA,” Weaver said.
He said it’s not a crime to not file taxes but only a crime if someone didn’t file taxes to avoid paying them.
“If the jury, at the end of the day, believes Sizemore acted in good faith then he won’t be convicted,” said Weaver. “But if they think he intentionally and willfully did this – that was his real state of mind when he did this – then he will be convicted.”
If the Sizemores are found guilty of the charges they could face 15 years behind bars.
But Sizemore said if he’s found not guilty, voters will respect him more.
“If a jury finds me not guilty, then it actually reinforces and strengthens my position, I think, with voters. They will agree, that well, obviously he’s being persecuted,” he said.
Sizemore does not deny not paying his taxes but declined Monday to give a reason for not paying them. He said he has a solid reason for not paying them which will come out if his case goes to trial.
Sizemore said he and his wife did pay estimated taxes in 2006 and 2007.
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