Here's what we know and don't know about Angela Alsobrooks' property tax errors

BALTIMORE — U.S. Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks said this week that she inadvertently claimed property tax credits she did not qualify for on a home she was renting out in Prince George’s County and another rental property in Washington, D.C., that had belonged to her grandmother.

The homestead tax credit is supposed to apply only to a homeowner’s primary residence.

The errors have become an issue in the campaign of the Democratic Prince George’s County executive, who is running against Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan for an open Senate seat. The race also is significant for majority control of the Senate currently held by Democrats.

The Baltimore Sun sought to address questions raised by the errors: Were the mistakes willful? If inadvertent, should she have known about them? Will the issue affect the race? The Baltimore Sun reviewed property tax records for this story.

The Sun also has requested income tax returns from both campaigns, which have not yet been given.

According to her attorney, Alsobrooks inadvertently claimed the homestead credit on two homes: one in Prince George’s County where she used to live and which later became a rental property; and the one in Washington that she bought from her grandmother about 20 years ago and converted it into a rental before selling it.

She also was receiving a senior citizen tax credit that had applied to her grandmother and shouldn’t have continued when she assumed ownership of the Washington home after her grandmother left.

Alsobrooks has said she didn’t realize she was receiving the credits and is paying back whatever she may owe. The campaign says it hasn’t learned the exact amount yet from the two jurisdictions.

Hogan has said Alsobrooks shouldn’t have made the errors and should have spotted them before now. The errors were first reported by CNN.

Did Alsobrooks knowingly take the tax credits?

It doesn’t appear so, nor has Hogan suggested she intentionally tapped into credits for which she didn’t qualify.

Rather, Hogan and his supporters say Alsobrooks, an attorney, should have spotted the errors and corrected them earlier, and that her explanation for the mistakes was misleading.

The errors saved Alsobrooks money in the case of the Washington home, but they cost her money in Prince George’s County.

Alsobrooks moved from one home to another in her home county in 2015 and neglected to transfer the homestead credit. That meant she was incorrectly accepting a tax credit on her former home — which she was renting out — but losing out on a credit in her new , more expensive home that would have been even larger because it was assessed at a higher rate.

It’s unlikely she would have intentionally cost herself money, although Hogan’s campaign says the slip-up is significant because it is about following “tax laws it was her job to enforce.”

If it was inadvertent, what is the issue?

The question is whether she should have known and whether her explanation for not knowing is acceptable.

Alsobrooks says she didn’t realize she was claiming the credits because, like many homeowners, she paid her property tax bill through her mortgage. It is a common practice for homeowners to include the property tax in their mortgage payments to lenders.

Wouldn’t she still have seen property tax bills or statements?

This is at the heart of the issue. Alsobrooks says she never saw the paper statements because — even though she held the deed to the Washington home she bought from her grandmother — the statements weren’t sent to her where she lived in Prince George’s County. Rather, she said, they continued to be mailed to the home of her grandmother, Lelia Bright, in northeast Washington.

Alsobrooks’ campaign says her grandmother, who is now deceased, left the home in 2005, and it became a rental property.

In response to Baltimore Sun questions, the campaign sent copies of four tax bills from various years addressed to Bright from Washington’s Office of Tax and Revenue to the grandparent’s former home.

Her critics have said Alsobrooks is at fault because years went by and she failed to report her address change.

What happened to the Washington home mortgage?

A statement from Alsobrooks’ campaign Monday said Alsobrooks had been paying off the Washington home’s mortgage on her grandmother’s behalf.

“Angela stepped up and took it over for her family and paid the mortgage until the property was sold in 2018,” the statement said.

Public records show the original mortgage was settled in 2004. Alsobrooks paid it off, her campaign said.

The records show Alsobrooks then took out additional mortgages — essentially loans using the home as collateral.

Will this affect the race?

It’s uncertain, and with just over a month remaining before the general election and some mail-in ballots already sent to voters, there is not much time to go on the defensive.

“I think for Alsobrooks the big question is whether she can explain it in a plausible way,” said Michael Towle, the political science department chair at Mount St. Mary’s University. “There doesn’t always seem to be a clear pattern to how voters will respond to legal issues, as we have seen with former President Trump.”

Election Day is Nov. 5.

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