Minnesotans who prefer to not pay their taxes (as opposed to those who just want them lowered) might be why the current front-runner for the U.S. Senate seat there is Al Franken (D), as Mark Levin reported this evening:

Photoshop courtesy of the Intimidator.

Note: The report Mark read on-air was the 5:38 PM (Eastern) version from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The link above now links to an updated version. Their original report I’ve reprinted after the jump.

Franken owes $70,000 in back taxes in 17 states
By PATRICIA LOPEZ, Minneapolis Star Tribune
April 29, 2008 5:38 PM Eastern

DFL U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken, frontrunner in the race to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, owes $70,000 in back taxes in 17 states, where he earned income going back to 2003.

Franken on Tuesday told the Associated Press that he never intended to avoid paying taxes and that on the advice of his accountant, had paid taxes to the city and state where he lived.

Franken has been under fire since early March, when a Republican operative revealed that Franken had failed to pay workers’ compensation and disability premiums for employees of his New York-based corporation, Alan Franken, Inc., between 2002 and 2005.

New York state officials had tried to collect the back premiums for four years, resorting to a collection agency and even filing a summary judgment against Franken in state Supreme Court last May for $25,000.

Franken said he was unaware of the state’s numerous attempts to contact him and finally was forced to acknowledge his error and make restitution earlier this month.

Last week, Franken was found to owe the state of California $4,740 for his failure to file corporate tax returns between 2003 and 2007.

Franken’s campaign staff initially said Franken had dissolved the California entity in 2003, producing an unsigned letter on blank paper, dated September, 2003, in which a tax accountant said the company would “no longer be doing business in California.”

Franken has had numerous engagements in California during those years, and in his U.S. Senate Financial Disclosure Report, filed May, 2007, stated that he does business not only in California, but in New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Delaware, Michigan, Kentucky and elsewhere.

Coleman, asked about today’s news, said: “I’m certainly troubled by these admissions. I would hope that Mr. Franken would continue to come forward and continue to be candid as to the nature of these problems.

“I serve on the Small Business Committee. I represent thousands of small-businessmen and -women in Minnesota. Those folks pay their taxes and meet their obligation — that is the expectation and so certainly these admissions by Mr. Franken are troubling.”

Staff writer Conrad Wilson contributed to this report.