Tax liens loom as issue in Suffolk races

With Election Day looming, Democrats are hammering a GOP candidate in a key Suffolk legislative race over back taxes the state says he owes.

According to the state Department of Taxation and Finance, Carla Marla's Ice Cream Inc., owned by John Giannott, the Republican candidate in the 7th Legislative District, has four open tax liens totaling $4,451. Giannott acknowledged the warrants but said he doesn't have to pay the money while he disputes the amount with the taxation division.

Taxation department spokesman Edward Walsh confirmed the outstanding warrants, but declined to comment about whether there is a dispute between Giannott and the department.

Giannott, 40, also a partner in the Bellport restaurant Porters On the Lane, says he is challenging the liens because the state estimated the taxes Carla Marla's owes based on year-round operation, when his Bellport ice cream shop is only open five months a year.

"You think you do everything right, then all of a sudden the state says, 'You owe taxes,' " Giannott said in an interview. "And you say 'No we don't,' and they say 'Yes, you do.' "

Giannott gave Newsday an Oct. 24 letter from the taxation department, acknowledging receipt of "correspondence from you or your representative regarding the assessment." He declined to provide a copy of the objections he says he filed with the state, saying the acknowledgment letter "shows that we are working on this as we speak."

Suffolk Democrats first raised the issue of liens against Giannott and two other GOP legislative candidates in a news release on Sept. 29. While the Democrats cited $11,600 in unsatisfied state liens against Giannott, state records only show $4,451 in warrants against the ice cream shop as outstanding.

State tax liens against the other two Republican candidates -- Deborah Poulos in the 16th District and Elizabeth Black in the 18th -- have been satisfied, records show.

In the 16th District, Republicans raised the lien issue against Democratic incumbent Steve Stern after Democrats raised it against Poulos.

Democrats attacked Poulos for a $353 state lien in 1991 and a $1,343 lien in 2004. They also said the federal government filed two liens against her totaling nearly $45,000.

Babylon Republican chairman Anthony Pancella responded by attacking Stern as "hypocritical." He released to Newsday a state warrant showing Stern and his wife Meredith had a $1,430 state lien earlier this year.

State records show Poulos paid off one state warrant in 2003 and the other in 2007. She said she has settled her federal taxes. A spokeswoman for the New York office of the Internal Revenue Service said she is prohibited by law from discussing individuals' tax situations.

The Sterns paid their back taxes on May 6, division of taxation records show. Giannott, of East Patchogue, is running against Democrat Robert Calarco, 32, for the open seat of Legis. Jack Eddington of Medford, an Independence Party member who is retiring and who caucuses with the Democrats. Democrats and several minor party allies have a 12-6 majority over legislative Republicans.