Naughty, Naughty Karl Rove

In news that serves as just comeuppance in the eyes of many area Democrats, Republican political mastermind Karl Rove is now finding himself in, well, luke-warm water over recent revelations that he has for years been receiving an illegal tax break on his $1.1 million home in the Palisades.

The break -- known as the homestead exemption -- allows District residents deduct $38,000 from the assessable value of their homes and caps annual property tax increases at 12 percent, a privilege limited in 2002 to include only those homeowners registered to vote in the city. This is where Rove seems to have tripped up -- he's registered in Texas, not the District. As penance for what he termed an oversight, Rove has agreed to pay $3,400 in back taxes to the city and forego the exemption from now on.

Not that this is anything new, though -- the Post reported in May that 22 senators were similarly enjoying the homestead exemption on their homes in the District, though none of them were registered to vote here.