State-Journal.com - EDITORIAL: Stupidity and politics

Mark Nickolas has made a name for himself in Kentucky and throughout the nation among Internet bloggers for his political blog BluegrassReport.org, which comments critically on political figures and issues as well as the state media.
Nickolas blog has received national awards, and he has been quoted in The New York Times and Washington Post as a frequent critic of Gov. Ernie Fletcher. He is in the process of suing Fletcher on First Amendment grounds for the administrations action blocking access to BluegrassReport.org from state government computers.
Apparently, however, Nickolas was so busy with his successful blog that he didnt bother filing state income tax returns.
When word spread across the capital city Wednesday that a Franklin County grand jury had indicted Nickolas on three criminal counts of failing to file and pay state income taxes for the past three years, those on the receiving end of Nickolas sometimes caustic criticism celebrated (the champagne probably flowed at Democratic Headquarters as copiously as at Republican Headquarters).
Nickolas admirers were shocked and disappointed that he could be so stupid. When you throw stones at glass houses, you had better be prepared to live in one yourself.
But it turns out things werent quite what they appeared to be.
Nickolas actually had filed returns with the Revenue Cabinet for 2003, 2004 and 2005 and paid the amount owed on Dec. 18, 2006. The checks were cashed 10 days later. Yet on the day of Nickolas indictment Jan. 17, 2007, the Revenue Cabinet had assured Commonwealths Attorney Larry Cleveland the taxes had not been paid. It was Cleveland who had urged a negotiated resolution all along.
On the basis of that assurance, Cleveland took the case to the grand jury and it handed down the indictments.
Had he known Nickolas had paid the taxes, Cleveland said he would not have taken the case to the grand jury.
Anyone who follows the Circuit Court docket here knows the Revenue Cabinet routinely files civil suits to collect taxes owed by businesses and individuals. Only rarely are indictments made.
Is it incompetence that a month after receiving Nicholas tax payment the Revenue Cabinet was urging his indictment for not paying the taxes? Or has the Revenue Cabinet, like the state Merit System, been politicized in the worst way possible to retaliate against those who dare criticize the governor?
We hope it is merely incompetence.
To his credit, Nickolas freely admitted his wrongdoing, took full responsibility and refused to blame anyone but himself. (If Fletcher had followed that line 18 months ago, he probably wouldnt today have a full-blown Republican revolt on his hands.)
Only time will tell whether Nickolas stupidity will undermine his credibility. The same, unfortunately, is true of the Kentucky Revenue Cabinet.

1.	Posted by Illicit_use_of_Tax_Exempt_Funds January 22, 2007
	Mark Nickolas has NOT paid HIS tax debt. Mark Nickolas wrote a check for his PERSONAL THREE YEAR LATE TAX DEBT out of a Tax-Exempt 501(c)4 bank account. Illicit Use OF Tax-Exempt Funds Mark Nickolas has been indicted for failure to file State Income Tax for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005. The Lexington Herald-Leader has reported that Nickolas' attorney, Thomas Clay, showed the H-L reporter a cancelled check for payment of Mark Nickolas PERSONAL tax debt from 2003 and 2004 from a tax-exempt 501(c)4 Corporation that Mark Nickolas is administrator of. That is against FEDERAL TAX LAW to use monies from a tax-exempt corporation to pay PERSONAL expenses. At the TIME Nickolas wrote the check the Foundation was acting as a 501(c)4. I seriously doubt that Fletcher made Mark Nickolas NOT file taxes for three years I seriously doubt Fletcher made Mark Nickolas use tax exempt funds - Illegally.