Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) receives a farming tax credit on the property she claims as a home despite no agricultural activity taking place there.
The Democrat congresswoman and nominee for Michigan’s open Senate seat saves about $2,700 per year from the arrangement, the New York Post reported.
Despite the property’s designation as “agricultural-improved,” there are no applicable agricultural licenses in effect there, according to a public records request that the Post cited. Aerial shots of the property show a single-family home, woods, and fields but no farming activity.
According to the Post:
The property held the agricultural exemption before ownership changed hands to Slotkin. There are two ways a property can be classified agricultural, according to the Michigan State Tax Commission: If it already is, as in Slotkin’s case, or if 50% or more of a property is used for agricultural purposes.
It is possible for a homeowner to withdraw from the agricultural designation, by requesting a withdrawal in writing from the commission.
An “agricultural-improved” designation can be given to a home with any “improvements, buildings, structures, or fixtures suitable for use in farming which are located on agricultural land.” The designation provides a homeowner with a 100 percent property tax exemption.
“Phony politician Elissa Slotkin is lying to Michigan voters and pretending she is a farmer,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Maggie Abboud told the Post. “Slotkin also lied about her ‘living arrangement’ at a lobbyist’s house, so this is not a surprise.”
After the Post published its story, a campaign spokesperson said, “Rep. Slotkin’s farm has been in her family for three generations since 1956. It has been agricultural since then and Oakland County has confirmed on multiple occasions that the property qualifies for the agricultural exemption.”
However, confusion remains regarding the purpose of the property.
Slotkin cofounded the Congressional Specialty Crops Caucus in April. In its report on the announcement, Michigan Farm News wrote that Slotkin “resides on her family’s beef cattle farm in Holly.”
Confusion persists regarding Slotkin’s broader living arrangements that Abboud referenced, as well. As the Post reports:
During her 2022 congressional run, Slotkin, who was married at the time, moved into the Lansing apartment of lobbyist Jerry Hollister.
Michigan had just gone through redistricting, and Slotkin moved from Holly to her new district during the campaign. After winning the seat, she soon left Lansing and returned to Oakland County.
Though the lobbyist said he was living elsewhere at the time, records showed he and Slotkin were both registered to vote from the Lansing address.
The timeline and facts get messier. The Post continued:
It turns out Slotkin was separated from her husband, David Moore, at the time of her House run. Divorce records from February 2023 show Slotkin and Moore attesting they’d lived apart for six months by then, dating their separation to at least August 2022.
When Slotkin’s 2022 opponent, Republican Tom Barrett, suggested she and the lobbyist were living together during a televised debate in Detroit, Slotkin used her marriage as a defense.
“My husband and I would like to talk to you about that,” she said.
Slotkin filed for divorce from Moore on February 1, 2023. The divorce was finalized on March 1, 2023, two days after Slotkin announced her intent to run for Senate.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
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