Agnew Loses Bid for Calif. Tax Refund : Former Vice President Wanted to Deduct Bribes He Returned

The state Board of Equalization today swiftly denied former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew’s request for a California tax break on $142,500 he repaid Maryland for bribes he collected as governor.

The panel unanimously refused to refund $24,197 in income taxes to Agnew after board member Conway Collis called the request “ludicrous.”

“I find it very hard to be sympathetic to someone who had to pay over $140,000 back to the state of Maryland as part of restitution for bribes taken, but now wants California to allow him a deduction for that pay-back just because he is now a California resident,” Collis said.

“If we allow this deduction and give Mr. Agnew the refund, we are in effect asking other California taxpayers to subsidize Mr. Agnew’s wrongdoing,” Collis said.

Agnew and his wife, Elinor, who live in affluent Rancho Mirage, contended that California auditors unjustly taxed them on the money he repaid in 1982 as restitution for accepting bribes from road construction companies while governor of Maryland from 1967 to ’69.

Agnew, 70, resigned as vice president in a cloud of bribery charges on Oct. 10, 1973, just 10 months before President Richard M. Nixon stepped down in disgrace during the unrelated Watergate scandal.

As part of an agreement with federal prosecutors, Agnew left office and pleaded no contest to felony charges that he avoided paying taxes on bribes given to him by road engineers for government contracts.

Agnew later was ordered to pay the federal government and Maryland additional taxes, penalties and interest totaling $162,105, according to documents filed with the Board of Equalization.

Agnew, who had moved to California, paid the judgment in 1982 and deducted $142,500--the amount he paid in restitution for the bribes--from his 1982 California income tax return.

A Franchise Tax Board auditor spotted the deduction four years later, disallowed it and ruled Agnew should pay $24,197 in back taxes and interest. Agnew paid it under protest in 1986 and filed an appeal.

Agnew’s request for the California tax break fell on unsympathetic ears in Maryland.

“Do I feel sorry for Agnew? Absolutely not. He is one of the luckiest men of his generation,” said Stephen H. Sachs, who was Maryland’s attorney general when Agnew made restitution in that state. “Agnew’s plea bargain was the greatest deal since the Lord spared Isaac on the mountaintop.”