It turns out property taxes in St. Louis won't be released until after election day - a move with undeniable political timing.
Dooley's campaign is fumbling around for a non-political explanation of why this happened, pushing the question off onto Susan Montee, who has her own history of 'extra-curricular' political activities that involve abusing the authority of her office. This sounds like something straight out of her playbook. The Post-Dispatch writes:
Scott [Dooley Spokesman] noted that the county cannot process bills until some jurisdictions and the state auditor's resolve differences about tax rates.
But Montee said the county does not have to wait for her office to certify tax rates. She said she cannot force taxing jurisdictions to change rates.
Way to get to the bottom of the issue, right? At least one party is avoiding its responsibility, and when you get down to it neither of them have any incentive to do their jobs properly and get to the bottom of this before election day. Watching them bumble around the tax delay like a pair of 'The Hardy Boys' rejects makes it extremely clear where their priorities are. If they didn't create this situation intentionally, at a minimum they're allowing it to keep on happening.
Should we consider it a happy coincidence that screwing up taxes is happening at Dooley's political benefit? Not likely.
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