Mon., August 24, 2009 11:49am (EDT)

Three Senators Cleared of Tax Issues

By Nathan Amstutz

Updated: 4 years ago

ATLANTA  —   Three state senators who had failed to pay state income taxes have been cleared and will not face sanctions. State Senator Eric Johnson heads the Senate Ethics Committee. Johnson says the senators have resolved those issues.

“I think it’s a reasonable request that we ask politicians that tell the public to pay their taxes that they pay their own. It’s unfortunate it took threat of exposure and a little sunshine to get them to do the right thing. But they did.”

Previous laws kept the senators’ names from being released to the public. But both the House and Senate passed a measure this year allowing ethic committees to do just that. Under threat of exposure, Johnson says, the three senators cleared up all their unpaid taxes.

The status of the 16 House members with outstanding state tax issues is unknown.