Taylor still holds land

Public land records in Haywood County, N.C., show that a company registered to Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) owns 17 plots of land in the mountain community of Maggie Valley, an interest that tax records indicate is worth more than $500,000.

Public land records in Haywood County, N.C., show that a company registered to Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) owns 17 plots of land in the mountain community of Maggie Valley, an interest that tax records indicate is worth more than $500,000.

The records raise questions about an assertion Taylor made in an Oct. 12 statement, part of a strong public defense mounted by the House Appropriations “cardinal” after a Wall Street Journal report alleged this month that Taylor steered federal funds to projects that would benefit businesses in which he has an interest.

Taylor’s statement was accompanied by a letter from his North Carolina attorneys that called for an apology and retraction from the Journal. Taylor is facing a well-funded Democratic election challenge from former pro football quarterback Heath Shuler.

Singling out 15 elements of the article that Taylor characterized as “innuendos and false statements,” the lawmaker wrote that he owns no holdings in two residential subdivisions located in his district’s picturesque Maggie Valley area.

“There is no development called Maggie Valley Leisure Estates,” Taylor wrote, referring to a subdivision mentioned in the article. “A large development in Maggie Valley is called Wild Acres,” Taylor added, where he held land 36 years ago but sold it “over 20 years ago.”

Haywood County land records still list a company called Maggie Valley Leisure Estates, Inc., founded 36 years ago by Taylor and two partners, as the owner of 17 land parcels. Fourteen of those plots are situated in the Wild Acres development and one is situated in a development named Maggie Valley Leisure Estates, according to land maps posted by the county.

Two area Realtors also use the MVLE name to offer online listings for homes in that development.

The North Carolina Secretary of State’s office, which records business registrations, has no record of any sale of Taylor’s interest in Maggie Valley Leisure Estates Inc., according to its website. The company’s registered address with that office and Haywood County is a post office box used by Taylor in county board of elections and Federal Elections Commission filings.

Taylor attorney Robert Long Jr., who drafted the letter to the Journal, said Maggie Valley Leisure Estates’ holdings in the Wild Acres area were unfit for residential development. Long referred to the 17 plots as “worthless” and “remnants,” adding, “You couldn’t build on it even if you tried.”

Long said Maggie Valley Leisure Estates had sold the majority of its land in the area by 1990 and that the business was now defunct. Asked whether a development existed with the MVLE name, Long said “they may have called it that” in ensuing years.

The state’s Department of Revenue suspended Maggie Valley Leisure Estates’ charter in 2003, according to records, for failing to file annual corporate and franchise tax reports. The notification of that decision was sent to the same post office box used by Taylor that appears in county land records.

North Carolina revenue officials said suspended companies are not absolved of outstanding tax obligations, which could be as low as $35 a year if the business had no activity. Haywood County employees confirmed that the business is still a valid landholder despite its state corporate status.

The state keeps no records on the frequency of corporate suspensions. Two other companies incorporated by Taylor in the 1980s with his wife as director, Financial Guaranty Securities and Financial Guaranty Credit Life Corps., also were suspended in 2005 for failing to file tax reports.

“The acreage I have is not even close to [U.S. Highway] 19,” which crosses through Maggie Valley, Taylor wrote later in his statement to the Journal.

Haywood County maps show that several of the land parcels owned by Maggie Valley Leisure Estates are within three miles of that highway. Another company, Gaybo, in which the lawmaker owns an interest worth as much as $250,000, according to his latest financial disclosure filing, maintains a 15-acre parcel of land located next to the highway, according to maps posted on the county’s website.

Taylor’s strongly worded defense comes in the thick of a hard-fought race between the wealthy lawmaker, whose estimated personal assets topped $50 million last year, and Shuler.

Taylor has spent heavily to keep his powerful perch as a senior appropriator, helping Shuler take the lead in cash on hand as of third-quarter fundraising reports. In addition to several ads bought by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) – one of which assailed Shuler for a company bearing his name that was late in its tax payments – Taylor has taken out $1.6 million in personal loans to help his campaign.

Taylor also used the statement sent alongside his attorney’s letter to blast Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), a nonpartisan watchdog group known for its exhaustive research into lawmakers’ earmarks, for providing the Journal with corroborating information for its article.

TCS, Taylor wrote, “is neither an organization for taxpayers nor for common sense. It is a partisan, ultra-liberal organization whose report is produced in conjunction with the environmental extremist groups Friends of the Earth and U.S. PIRG.”

TCS vice president Steve Ellis pointed out that the group has partnered with groups from both sides of the ideological spectrum, including the conservative-leaning Club for Growth and National Taxpayers Union, for previous efforts.

“Like an illusionist, [Taylor] is trying to divert public attention to his parade of irrelevant facts instead of concentrating on and answering to his dubious record,” Ellis said in an Oct. 16 statement. “It’s not too shocking that a senior appropriator is lashing out at a budget watchdog group. In fact, that is a good indication we are doing our job.”