WASHINGTON — Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, did not pay $7,040 in income taxes that she and her husband owed between 2005 and 2007, the White House disclosed Tuesday in another tax-related embarrassment for the new administration.
Sebelius' tax bill stemmed from insufficient documentation of charitable donations and mistakes in deducting mortgage interest, the governor explained in a letter to the chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
It was not immediately clear how the disclosure would affect her prospects for Senate confirmation to the Cabinet post. Her unpaid taxes were substantially smaller than those of former Sen. Tom Daschle, who was forced to withdraw as Obama's Health and Human Services nominee in February after it was disclosed that he had failed to pay more than $128,000 in taxes.
But Republicans, already leery of Obama's healthcare overhaul plans, may give the tax matter a thorough airing when Sebelius appears before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. A confirmation vote by the full Senate is expected later this month.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who is helping lead the effort to write healthcare legislation, rallied to Sebelius' side.
"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Gov. Sebelius has the political experience, determination and bipartisan work ethic to get the job done with Congress this year," Baucus said in a statement. "She's the right person for the job."
A spokeswoman for Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the senior Republican on the panel, was more circumspect.
"Sen. Grassley is always concerned about tax adjustments by nominees but reserves judgment until the nominee has a hearing and has a chance to offer an explanation," Jill Gerber said.
In a letter to Sebelius on Tuesday, Baucus and Grassley otherwise indicated satisfaction with her disclosures to the committee.
Sebelius -- a Democrat who is the sixth senior nominee to the Obama administration to reveal tax problems -- said she paid the back taxes plus $878 in interest after they were identified by an accountant she had hired to review her returns when Obama tapped her for his Cabinet. "That evaluation revealed unintentional errors, which we immediately corrected by filing amended returns," Sebelius wrote in a letter to Baucus and Grassley.
