Oregon Public Broadcasting

Bill Sizemore is back in the news.  The initiative activist and Republican candidate for governor was charged with tax evasion Monday by the office of Oregon Attorney General John Kroger. 

Joining us now with more details is our Salem reporter, Chris Lehman.

Hi, Chris.

Hi, Beth.

Q:  So what exactly is the Attorney General’s office alleging?

Prosecutors say that Bill Sizemore and his wife, Cindy, did not file state tax returns for tax years 2006, 2007, and 2008.  These charges are Class C felonies and if convicted, the Sizemores could spend up to five years behind bars.

Q:  How did these charges come about?

I talked with Sean Riddell, the head of the Criminal Justice Division for the Oregon Department of Justice.  He told me that information was uncovered during a deposition in an unrelated civil suit against the Sizemores last spring.  Riddell says investigators in that civil case forwarded the evidence of possible criminal wrongdoing along to the criminal justice division, which launched an investigation in April.  That culminated in a Grand Jury indicted against the Sizemores in late October.

Q:  So why weren’t the charges made public until today?

Through an interesting quirk of timing, the Grand Jury indictment came right in the middle of Oregon’s first ever tax amnesty program, which allowed delinquent taxpayers to essentially come clean.  That amnesty period ended November 19, and the Sizemores did not apply…so out came the indictment.  I asked Sean Riddell of the Attorney General’s office if the Sizemores could have fended off these charges by applying for tax amnesty, and he said not necessarily, but it would have caused prosecutors to have additional discussions before deciding to proceed with a criminal case. 

Q:  What does Bill Sizemore have to say about these charges?

He says he’ll plead not guilty at his arraignment next week.  He did admit that he and his wife have not filed their tax returns as required by law.  But he said they’ve made more than $50,000 in estimated state and federal tax payments since 2006, so he says it’s not as though they’ve been trying to get out of paying their taxes.  As to why he didn’t actually file a return...well, Sizemore points to his ongoing legal battles with public employees unions.

Bill Sizemore:  “We did not file tax returns for ’06 and ’07 because we have to give copies of all of our ’06, ’07, ’08 tax returns to the teachers unions, our worst political opponents, within ten days of filing them, so they can rifle through our tax returns and for sure find that they are false no matter what we put in them.”

Q:  What does this mean for his campaign for governor?

The timing of this certainly isn’t going to help Sizemore’s fledgling campaign, that’s for sure.  It was only a week ago that he entered the race, and state GOP leaders were already giving him a cool reception.  So depending on how this case proceeds, we could see Sizemore’s name in the headlines for a criminal case at the same time as he tries to round up votes for the May gubernatorial primary.