Lawmaker's lawyer backs client's income tax fights

BOISE (AP) - State Rep. Phil Hart's attorney has likened the lawmaker's legal fights over unpaid income taxes to the struggles of civil rights legend Rosa Parks and former South African President Nelson Mandela.

Attorney Starr Kelso defended Hart in an opinion published Saturday in The Coeur d'Alene Press under the headline "Kindred spirits: Phil Hart, Rosa Parks, Mandela."

Kelso begins his editorial by pointing out that Parks was arrested because she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man; that Mandela was jailed after campaigning against the apartheid; and then concludes that Hart has been treated unfairly in his battles over unpaid taxes with the state and federal governments.

Hart has long argued that income taxes are unconstitutional, waging legal fights with the state and federal government. Tea party activists rallied behind the Republican as he underwent a House ethics panel investigation this year and more than one supporter referred to Hart's book about his belief that the income tax is illegal.

Parks's arrest in 1955 inspired the Montgomery Improvement Association, then led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to launch the historic, yearlong Montgomery bus boycott. Mandela was jailed for 27 years for his fight against the apartheid system and became South Africa's first black president in 1994, stepping down after one term in 1999.

In his editorial, Kelso used the analogy of a well-kept hedge around a yard to introduce the three cases.

"When the owner notices one or two branches sticking up above the rest what does he do? He cuts them off. All must conform," said Kelso, who returned to the analogy in his conclusion. "They tried to trim Hart from the hedge. Their clippers broke," he said.

The IRS has filed liens totaling nearly $500,000 against Hart over unpaid income taxes. Idaho officials contend the Republican owes another $53,000 in state income taxes.

Hart insists he has paid $120,000 in state and federal taxes since 2005 and had the IRS not disallowed his business expenses from 1997 to 2004, his problems would have long ago been resolved.

The House ethics panel recommended Hart's removal from the House Revenue and Taxation Committee last month. Hart has declined to resign, and said there's no conflict of interest with his position on the committee and his tax problems.

Kelso called the panel's move "a malicious vendetta against Phil Hart by his political opponents."

"They don't like the fact that Phil Hart stands up for what he believes is right," Kelso said in his opinion piece.

He did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday from The Associated Press.