Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has been late making payments on taxes he owed on real estate and personal property in recent years, according to a recent report.
Manchin paid off $700 he owed to Marion County, West Virginia, last week in back taxes over the past three years, NBC News reported on Wednesday. In 2020, Manchin paid $630 in back tax payments to the same county for payments he owed from 2016, 2017, and 2018. The payments, which went back as far as 2009, at times included interest or fines.
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"Like most West Virginians, Senator Manchin has always paid every tax bill he's received in full, and any lapse in payment has been quickly rectified as soon as he has been made aware,” a Manchin spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
The payments, at times, were made within days of their due dates, while others were made months and, in some cases, years later.
“Joe Manchin voted to raise West Virginians’ taxes with the Inflation Reduction Act but can’t be bothered to pay his own,” Tate Mitchell, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner. “Manchin’s hypocrisy knows no limits.”
Manchin, a centrist Democrat in ruby-red West Virginia, is facing a tough reelection in 2024. Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) and Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) have already announced they intend to challenge Manchin in 2024. The West Virginia senator has not yet announced whether he will seek reelection.
Manchin isn’t the only candidate dealing with some unsettled debts. For years, Justice has been dealing with allegations his family business hadn’t paid its debts, which included fines for environmental violations at coal plants. According to court documents, a bank filed paperwork to garnish his salary as governor to finish paying a personal guarantee of a business loan.
In 2020, a ProPublica report found Justice’s companies were involved in over 600 lawsuits in more than two dozen states after workers, vendors, and government agencies said they weren’t paid. A month after Justice decided to get into the race, the Department of Justice announced it was suing 13 coal companies owned and operated by the governor’s son, alleging his companies committed more than 100 violations harmful to the environment.
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Manchin isn’t the only Senate Democrat who has struggled to make tax payments on time.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and his wife Connie Schultz have also been late making tax bill payments on their Cleveland home at least seven times since 2013. Brown also faces a tough reelection as Republicans are looking to target his seat in the 2024 election.