Lawmaker bristles at return to sender.

• Author: Maley, Frank
• Position: Tar Heel Tattler - Brief Article

Julia Howard got a letter every taxpayer would dread: The N.C. Revenue Department couldn't find her 1999 tax return, though it had cashed the check that accompanied it. Would she send a copy?

If she were like many people, Howard would turn the house inside out before finding her old return, make a copy and send it along, hoping to quiet the ghosts of tax seasons past. But Howard, a state representative from Davie County, knows exactly where her copy is--exactly where it's staying. That's what she told the Revenue Department. "I just took a black pen and wrote a note on the back of a copy of the letter: I earned it. I filed it. I paid it. I sent it. You got it. You spent it. You lost it. You find it. I ain't lookin'."

It's not that she can't forgive a clerical error. She sees something more sinister. "This is nothing more than political harassment."

Howard, a Republican, had criticized Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Democrat from Dare County, at a luncheon in Lexington, and her remarks appeared in the local paper the next day. She contended that Basnight was too powerful in the budget-making process. Five days later, his...