The spouse of one of San Diego’s mayoral candidates failed to pay required business taxes to the city.
Republican City Councilman Kevin Faulconer’s wife Katherine had not paid the city’s annual tax for her restaurant event planning business as of Monday. Katherine Faulconer paid the $242 she owed the city after Voice of San Diego notified Faulconer’s campaign.
Faulconer’s campaign spokesman Tony Manolatos said the failure to pay the tax was an “oversight.” Katherine Faulconer recently moved her business Restaurant Events Inc. from downtown to Point Loma, and the renewal notice went to her old address, Manolatos said. Her payment was due Sept. 15.
“When you’re switching offices and stuff, one or two things are bound to get overlooked,” Manolatos said.
On Monday, Katherine Faulconer paid the city’s $34 annual business license tax and associated fees for operating within the Gaslamp Quarter’s business district, changing her address and paying the tax late, said Ricardo Ramos, a city business tax manager.
Kevin Faulconer has valued his wife’s business at between $100,001 and $1 million on all of his financial disclosure forms since he took office in 2006. The business has earned more than $100,000 in income each year, according to the forms.
Restaurant Events Inc. connects Gaslamp restaurants with meeting and convention planners for events. The company received $10,000 or more each last year from Cohn’s Restaurant Group, Dick’s Last Resort and Acqua al 2, according to Faulconer’s disclosure.
Scott Ehrlich, a business law professor at California Western School of Law, said Katherine Faulconer’s failure to pay city business taxes on time isn’t a big deal.
“A $34 tax, that’s something that can slip through the cracks,” Ehrlich said.
Former Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, now a Democrat and a mayoral candidate, lists a consulting business called Arrow Advisers Inc. on his financial disclosure form.
Fletcher has not paid city taxes for the company, but the city requires companies to pay taxes only when they do business. Fletcher’s campaign said Fletcher set up the company for business projects when he had left the state legislature in 2012. Fletcher took a job at Qualcomm instead and never conducted business using the company, his campaign said.