Boulder City Councilman Macon Cowles, who never met a tax increase he didn’t like, apparently is not a fan of paying his own taxes.

The Daily Camera covers the case of Boulder’s own Charlie Rangel with a rather frank admission from Cowles that cheating the system is the natural thing to do. Cowles tells the Daily Camera that he intentionally sought the lowest possible value on his home for a property tax assessment—in this case more than a million dollars lower!

After asking fellow Democrat, County Assessor Jerry Roberts, to value his home at $700,000 in May 2009, barely more than a year later Cowles listed his house for sale at $2.1 million. Now that he has closed a deal for $1.56 million on the house, the property tax assessment will be corrected—but for the new homeowners. Cowles gets off scot-free.

You can’t blame Cowles for not knowing what it’s worth. He’s just a lawyer—what does he know about real estate? Oh yeah…he says on his City Council website that he sits on the Metropolitan Homebuilders Association of Colorado Review Committee. I guess to be on that you have to know something about real estate.

So you mean he’s just cheating the system? Yup.

Same guy who votes to increase other people’s taxes in the morning is asking his buddy Jerry Roberts in the afternoon to help lower his own. I bet every homeowner in Boulder wishes they had the same connections. 

What does Jerry Roberts have to say about this? He calls it unfortunate.

Seems more like fraud.