By Kenneth C. Rossignol
ST. MARY’S TODAY

VALLEY LEE (Oct. 19, 2009) --- William Anthony “Tony” Lake, a top of advisor to President Barack Obama during last year’s presidential campaign and former national security advisor to President Bill Clinton said he didn’t know his property in St. Mary’s County was being taxed as his principal place of residence and thereby saving him on taxes due to Maryland and to St. Mary’s County.

“I am a resident of Washington, that is where my principal place of residence is and I pay taxes in the District,” Lake told ST. MARY’S TODAY.

“I guess I will have to thank you for bringing this to my attention,” said Lake. “I am very meticulous about my tax matters and I was just on the line with my tax accountant.”

Lake said that he was going to contact Maryland tax authorities and request that his correct tax be determined and intends on paying the property tax assessed at a rate consistent with his correct status of being an out-of-state or non-resident owner.

A story in the print edition and available now on newsstands, reports that efforts to reach Lake prior to press deadline were not successful. 

Lake returned calls seeking comment on the tax status of his property today.

Lake owns a home on Blake Creek Road near Valley Lee and is a registered voter on State of Maryland voter rolls but listed as an inactive voter.

“I vote in DC and this is my home,” said Lake, calling from his office at Georgetown University in Washington. 

Lake didn’t have an answer to why his tax status is listed as principal place of residence for the waterfront home he owns in St. Mary’s County on the Maryland Department of Assessment and Taxation website.

“I guess you’ll report you caught me,” said Lake, who said that his tax bills are paid in his mortgage.  Lake has been renting the home for the past four years, located on the Potomac River at Blake Creek Road, to a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Mary's College of Maryland.

It takes an affirmative request to obtain residential status for the lower tax rate when notice of assessment is sent to property owners.

Lake served as Clinton’s national security advisor for four years prior to being nominated after Clinton won reelection in 1996 to be CIA director but withdrew his name following opposition in the U. S. Senate.

Lake was in contention to be nominated to be Secretary of State by Obama after being the co-chair of his national security committee. Susan Rice, who shared the duties of advising then Senator Obama was tapped to be Ambassador to the United Nations.

A resident of Georgetown, Lake began his career as an advisor to U. S. Ambassador Maxwell Taylor, served as an assistant to Henry Kissinger and participated in the secret negotiations with the North Vietnamese to end the Viet Nam War.

A split with the top diplomat sent Lake left him on the outs with the Nixon Administration and he successfully sued Kissinger for tapping his phones.

After a stint teaching he was brought into the Carter Administration, was out in the cold under Reagan and Bush and back in the White House from a teaching post in Massachusetts under Clinton.

For Obama, Lake and Rice supervised 300 foreign policy team members.

In December of 2008, Lake and others founded a nuclear free world group named Global Zero. The group hasn’t gotten off to a great start as nuclear weapons continue to spread with the latest madmen on the edge of gaining nukes being the Iranians.

Noted Washingtonian and weekend resident of St. Mary's County, Washington Post Vice President Ben Bradlee mastered the art of properly noting his property ownership status with the Maryland Department of Assessment and Taxation.  Bradlee's Porto Bello farm is listed in state records, in two parcels, as not being his principal place of residence. Bradlee is a neighbor of Lake in Georgetown.