Property-tax problems plague First District GOP candidate

Brian Davis, the Republican-endorsed candidate in Minnesota's First Congressional District, has paid his property taxes late for most of the past five years, a Washington-based political website reported this week.

Davis, a Mayo Clinic physician who earned more than $400,000 last year, has paid interest and penalties amounting to $1,400 for 10 late payments since 2003, according to Olmsted County property records reviewed by Politico and the state DFL Party.

During those five years, the records show, Davis made only one payment on time. The periods he was late ranged from two weeks to more than five months. Davis was late as recently as this spring, when he was already the GOP-endorsed candidate for Congress.

Davis said Wednesday night that while he hasn't yet reviewed his tax records, he knows he has been late in paying taxes in the past and called it "an unfortunate oversight" for which he has no good excuse.

"I wish it hadn't happened, but I also emphasize that this wasn't a refusal to pay taxes, it was a matter of getting a bill in the mail, of not recognizing that it was a bill, and not paying it," he said.

Before 2003, Davis said, he and his wife used a system set up through work to have their property taxes automatically paid before the twice-a-year deadlines of May 15 and Oct. 15.

When that system was changed, he said, the late payments began.

Davis, 50, of Rochester, narrowly won the GOP endorsement on the first ballot in March to challenge incumbent Rep. Tim Walz, the first-term Mankato Democrat.

But Davis, a political newcomer, first must defeat state Sen. Dick Day of Owatonna in the Sept. 9 GOP primary.

"I have no idea what all is happening with [Davis]," Day said Wednesday night. "I don't even know him that well. He's relatively new to the political arena. ... This is something he's going to have to work out."

DFL Party chair Brian Melendez was less charitable.

"Brian Davis owes voters an explanation," he said. "How does a millionaire doctor who can contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to his own campaign miss the property tax deadline not just once, or even twice, but over and over again?"

"It's the rare individual that hasn't missed a payment, and I don't think this is going to be a major issue in the campaign," he said.

Davis was one of a dozen candidates profiled in a Politico story about congressional challengers who have been delinquent in paying income and property taxes.