Cindy McCain Settles Back Property Taxes

Cindy McCain's debts with the county tax collector appear to be settled.

Officials said Monday a trust controlled by the multimillionaire wife of Republican presidential hopeful John McCain had initiated payment on $1,743 owed in property taxes on a condominium in the tony La Jolla Shores area.

The payment, due in April, was scheduled to default Tuesday.

"You can reasonably assume that it is paid," San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan McAllister said Monday.

Additional bills totaling $6,744 for the years 2004 through 2007 were paid by the trust on Friday after Newsweek magazine questioned why the trust had fallen into arrears on the two-bedroom, two-bath oceanfront property, McAllister said.

Jeff Olson, division chief of assessment services for San Diego County, said the post office returned tax statements for those years sent to an incorrect mailing address in Phoenix, where Cindy McCain's trusts are registered.

No address change was recorded after the condominium deed was transferred from another family trust in 2002, Olson said.

Brian Rogers, a spokesman for McCain's campaign, said Monday there would be no comment beyond what Newsweek had reported.

The Arizona senator's wife disclosed in May that she had a total income of more than $6 million in 2006.

Heiress to a large Arizona beer distributorship, Cindy McCain's worth has been estimated at more than $100 million. Her assets, as listed in her husband's financial disclosure forms, are vast. But those forms only require assets to be listed in broad ranges, and many of hers are valued at simply "over $1 million."