The accusations first appeared on the newspaper's Talkabout message board Saturday afternoon.
"We found out about it through the blog," Slater-Carter said Monday. She said she and her husband called the Washoe County Tax Collector's Office at 8 a.m. Monday to confirm the tax lapse. Slater-Carter said that Washoe County does not accept credit card payments or online payments, so her husband sent a registered check Monday in the full amount of $2,433.60.
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Slater-Carter was also surprised to learn that four of the last five assessments to Washoe County have been paid late, ranging from a couple of weeks late to more than three months past the deadline.
"Those taxes have all been paid," Slater-Carter said in an e-mail reply to the Review's inquiry about the previous assessments.
Slater-Carter has questioned the relevance of the tax information in her campaign to retain her seat on the Montara Water and Sanitary District. She said that her husband handles the couple's real estate finances, and that an out-of-state property has nothing to do with her ability to participate on the district board.
The accusations appear to be part of a heated exchange between Slater-Carter's supporters and her challenger's camp, which has been waged mostly online.
Last week, Slater-Carter weathered earlier scrutiny about the Incline Village home. Though she and her husband have registered the home as a primary residence in Nevada and say they only use it for vacations, Slater-Carter has never voted in Washoe County. She therefore remains eligible to hold office in San Mateo County.
The specific question of Slater-Carter's tax delinquencies mirrored, though to a lesser degree, accusations faced by her challenger, Moss Beach resident Richard Bulan. Due to an anonymous tip made on Oct. 10, the Review confirmed with the San Mateo County Tax Collector's office that Bulan had missed three out of four tax assessments over the last four years, including assessments owed to the district for which he is running.
Bulan said at the time that the missed payments were an accountant's oversight, and that he paid the delinquencies within an hour.
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