More Al Franken sloppiness blown out of proportion

A little over a week ago, Minnesota Republicans publicized that Al Franken's company did not pay corporate income taxes in California and owed a bunch in back taxes. It appeared at the time that Franken neglected to officially dissolve the corporation in California when he moved it to New York. I wrote at the time this did not merit the coverage it received, unlike his previous problem with workers' comp insurance in New York.

The Star Trib does a more lengthy piece today on the subject, with little additional information or insight. It still looks like that it is a case of failing to dissolve his corporation when he moved it to New York (and we assume paid taxes there).

The Republicans say, "But he did some paid appearances in California--he's still doing business there!" Well, I don't know California tax law, but my understanding is that those earnings would go through the New York-based corporation and which would be paying federal and New York state taxes. I could be wrong, but maybe the Strib should figure this out before printing a long piece of unsubstantiated allegations.

There are lots of people who should be taken to task on this story:

• The Star Tribune and writers Kevin Duchschere and Patricia Lopez for giving such attention to these allegations without getting to the bottom of the story. They're doing little more than parroting the Republican smear machine.
• Al Franken's accountant who seems to be blamed for a lot of these mistakes.
• Al Franken himself, but not for the California tax allegations. He's a dufus right now because he has had over a week since this story first arose to get to the bottom of it and provide answers.
• Al Franken's company for relying on an accountant's advice and not hiring a corporate tax attorney when moving his corporation from one state to another.

And what about the Minnesota Republicans? I can't really blame them. They successfully took a small matter and got some political hay out of it. That's what happens in politics. Their argument about him doing business in California seems a little disingenuous, but at least they aren't lying.