New York taxpayers just bailed out Rep. Charles Rangel, thanks to a deal in which the state covered at least $87,000 in unpaid rent for his district office:
Rangel paid $7,253 in monthly rent on the 125th Street office he has rented since 2000, expense reports from 2012 show. But the payments stopped for all of 2013.
Incredibly, instead of demanding payment of the back rent and late fees from its deadbeat legislative tenant, the state cut him a huge rent break.
The state comptroller approved a $101,000 lease between Rangel and OGS on Dec. 26, 2013, retroactively covering the period back to April 2013 and future months through December 2014, records show. The 21-month deal resulted in a deeply reduced rent of $4,809 a month.
When asked why the rent was not paid, Rangel’s office first claimed they had lost their lease, though I don’t see how that’s a valid excuse. They later blamed it on sequestration, which set spending limits for congressional offices. However, the sequester didn’t begin until two months after Rangel stopped paying his rent.
Furthermore, Rangel, who had an estimated net worth of between $566,000 and $1.2 million in 2010, has a history of shady real estate problems. In 2010, he was censured for dodging taxes on his Dominican Republic villa, and he also underwent an ethics probe for his campaign’s use of a Harlem apartment.
In other words, he doesn’t really sound like the type of guy that seems trustworthy enough to lead our country…