Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 25, 1995 TAG: 9505250055
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
In fact, Meredith told the more than 500 people at the Republican Party mass meeting that St. Clair has gone the extra mile and saved money for individual taxpayers by catching errors - including a $1,000 overcharge - made by the staff of current Commissioner of Revenue Robertine Jordan, a fixture of Democratic politics for 40 years.
Meredith's pitch worked. Republicans chose St. Clair over Steve Fijalkowski, a state trooper. But the charge may be just the beginning of a heated contest for the commissioner's office this fall, pitting St. Clair, 40, against Jordan's chief deputy, Nancy Miller, 58.
"I think the convention Saturday set the tone for what this race is going to be all about," Jordan said.
Asked about Meredith's statement, Jordan at first said she didn't know what he was talking about. After checking with her staff, though, Jordan said a staffer had erred in a "rollback" tax assessment. That caused the owner to be overcharged for back taxes when he withdrew his land from a special low-tax status.
"In essence, the county really held his money" for more than two years, Meredith said.
But the staff member who made the error is the one who first pointed it out to St. Clair, not the other way around as Meredith implied, Jordan said.
St. Clair confirmed that the commissioner's employee first brought the mistake - which dated back to 1992 - to her attention. But St. Clair said she was the one who insisted the commissioner's office take two steps: write a Jan. 26 letter explaining the mistake; and prepare a corrected statement that showed the full value of the lower assessment.
"I realized there was a vast difference between the two amounts as far as the assessments," St. Clair said. "My digging into it prompted them to make the actual correction ... which resulted in the refund to the taxpayer."
Jordan is retiring this year and next week will be nominating Miller, an employee of hers for 26 years, for the Democratic nomination to run for commissioner.
"It's just hard to believe that there can be that much confusion over one error," Jordan said. "Errors are made and they're corrected."
"We're all human," Miller said.
Meredith, first elected in 1971, will be on the ballot again this fall. So far he is unopposed. He said he brought up the rollback-assessment error not so much to criticize his courthouse neighbor Jordan - their office entrances face each other on the first floor - as to point out St. Clair's abilities.
"I don't usually make statements unless I'm pretty sure what I'm talking about, because you don't do that in the political world," he said. "My own feeling is that it will be an experience-based campaign."
St. Clair, an accountant in the treasurer's office for 11 years, said she intends to focus her campaign on the leadership skills she could bring to the commissioner's office. "I don't plan on making a campaign issue about anyone's clerical errors," she said. "I just feel that in leadership you need to be aware of those kind of things and certainly avoid anything like that happening if possible."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB