Coshocton commissioner candidate owes delinquent taxes, says he's handling it
COSHOCTON – A candidate for Coshocton County commissioner has three open cases related to delinquent taxes in Coshocton County Common Pleas Court, bringing in question his fiscal responsibility when he could be dealing with multi-million dollar budgets if elected. However, he's confident in the way he is handling the situation.
Merritt Roberson is seeking the Republican nomination for commissioner in the spring primary against Bob Bigrigg and Chuck Selders. It’s the seat currently held by independent Rick Conkle, who is not seeking a second term.
The cases are related to failure to pay personal income taxes via the Ohio Department of Taxation and were filed in September and October 2019 and September 2023.
The case last year has Roberson owing $348.70. The case from September 2019 has him owing $5,805.34 and the case from October 2019 is for $1,729.98
Roberson said the matters are related to him not receiving a W-2 form in 2017 related to $4,500 he had earned. Since he didn’t receive the form, he didn’t claim it on his taxes. He was audited and the state claimed he owed money with interest.
“It turns out the interest on the owed money is less than the income from invested money, so financially it makes no sense to pay them off. Instead, I just give the state my state tax returns every year until it’s paid off,” Roberson explained on how he is rectifying the situation.
The 43-year-old is a labor foreman for Empire Refractory Services of North America and previously worked for McWane Ductile in Coshocton and through Laborers International Union of North America in the fields of pipeline, excavation, masonry and refractory.
The Coshocton County Commissioners Office for 2024 has a general fund budget estimated at $17.8 million with the total of all funds being around $80.3 million.
Roberson feels handling his tax situation as he is doing is actually fiscally sound.
“It shows that while I could pay the money, financially that would be the wrong decision. Instead, I collect the gains off invested money and accumulate a smaller amount of debt off of interest on owed money. As to whether I could handle the county’s budget, well, I certainly could do better than our current commissioners,” Roberson said.
As points of interest he disagrees with the commissioners office on, Roberson pointed out giving $250,000 annually to the Richard Downing Airport that only 1% of the county population uses, salary increases to the administrator and budget director, pledging $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to a county broadband project with Ohio TT that only about 120 homes have signed up for so far and not having funding increases figured out for more staffing needs during construction of the new Coshocton Justice Center.
This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: Coshocton County commissioner candidate owes delinquent taxes
