KENNESAW - The Cobb Tax Commissioner's Office has sent a letter to Cobb School Board candidate Bill Borden and his wife, Brenda, demanding they pay back taxes on their vehicles not registered in Cobb and threatening to cancel the couple's homestead exemption "if the matter is not resolved promptly."

At least two vehicles with Alaska tags - a Ford pickup truck and a Toyota Sequoia SUV - have either been spotted at Borden's house or at his business in Kennesaw. Under Georgia law, residents must register their vehicles in Georgia and obtain a Georgia driver's license within 30 days after establishing residency in the state. Failure to do so can result in a misdemeanor charge, and, if convicted, a fine of $100 per day.

"As a resident of this county, with homestead exemption here, all of your vehicles must be registered in Cobb," states the tax office's letter, dated June 30 and signed by Stewart Manley, director of tag/title operations.

The letter notes that the Bordens will owe back taxes for as long as they have owned the vehicles while living in Georgia. Borden said previously that he bought the pickup truck in 2002.

"Your homestead exemption will be lost if this matter is not resolved promptly, since proper registration of your vehicles is a prerequisite for qualifying for the exemption as a Georgia/Cobb County resident. Additionally, your improperly registered vehicles can be seized without further notice to be sold at public auction to satisfy a tax liability," the letter states.

Bill Borden said Thursday that he had not yet received the letter.

The tax office's letter was sent Wednesday, the same day the Journal published a story with photographs of two vehicles with Alaska license plates the Bordens say they own. During a face-to-face interview with the Journal on Wednesday afternoon - which was attended by Bill and Brenda Borden and one of his campaign managers, Kennesaw Mayor Mark Mathews - Brenda Borden said the photo of another car, a red SUV bearing Alaska plates, was not theirs.

"There's a picture in the paper of a red car, but I don't know whose car that is," Brenda Borden said. "It's not ours."

Bill Borden is one of two Republicans seeking to represent north-central Cobb on the county school board. There are no Democrats in the race, so the July 20 primary will likely determine whether he or Kell High School parent and event planner Kathleen Angelucci takes the seat. Borden was endorsed this week by Roger Hines, a popular retired educator and former state house member, who earlier this year ended his own campaign for state schools superintendent.

Borden is the senior loan officer at Checkpoint Mortgage on Cherokee Street in Kennesaw. His wife, Brenda, owns the company, he said.

Bill Borden also graduated from John Marshall Law School in 1993, earning a doctorate of jurisprudence, according to the diploma on his office wall. But he failed the bar exam twice, he said, and is not a lawyer. The title "doctor," though, does appear before his name on his website, www.borden.pro.

"I passed the fitness boards for the state bar, but I did not pass the bar, I'm not a bar member. I do not practice law," he said. "I have the legal knowledge, but I do not choose to apply it to the practice of law."

But the Bordens acknowledged they do own and drive the two Alaska-registered vehicles here in Georgia. Bill Borden said his wife uses the Sequoia and the pickup is his.

As for whether he would be changing the tags on the truck, Borden said Wednesday afternoon: "Haven't decided yet."

When pressed about the state code that requires registering vehicles and obtaining a driver's license within 30 days, Borden said, "I'm not a lawyer."

The Sequoia, Bill Borden said, is driven frequently to Kentucky, South Carolina and other states.

"It is a gas vehicle, and it requires an emission. When it is out of this state, Georgia has no provision for getting an emission sticker. ... If you own your car, and you go out of state during the month of your birth, and you try to license the vehicle in Georgia, you cannot. Which means you are then driving illegally back to Georgia," Borden said.

Asked why he couldn't get the emissions test done before he left town, Borden said the testing had to be done within 30 days of establishing residence in Cobb, and that he is often out of town during December, which is his birth month and the month a car registration renewal would be due.

"We travel a lot, and it can happen, yes. I have asked to get that law changed, but I haven't seen it changed yet. But that's really irrelevant. If it's determined that a legally licensed vehicle with valid registrations and valid insurance, if it's determined that I need to have it registered here, then I'll be happy to register it here," Borden said.

However, that differs from information stated on the website of the Georgia Clean Air Force (GCAF).

"Test early. GCAF recommends having your vehicle inspected four to six weeks prior to the registration renewal date. Vehicles can be tested well in advance if the driver of the vehicle will be out of the area at the time of registration," is among tips for drivers found at www.cleanairforce.com.

In Wednesday's story, the Journal also noted that the city of Kennesaw does not have a business license for Checkpoint Mortgage, which Bill Borden refuted. There is a license for Real Estate Custom Finance Inc., at the same address as Checkpoint, and the mortgage company is registered with the county as a "d/b/a" - doing business as - for Real Estate Custom Finance Inc.

But that is a non-issue, he said, because it is his wife's company, of which he is an employee.

"Real Estate Custom Finance Inc. is the company that Brenda owns that has a registered d/b/a with Cobb County, recorded in the courthouse, that says it operates as Checkpoint Mortgage," Bill Borden said.

The clerk in the city's business licensing office, though, said no such information was in the city's files.

On the financial disclosure statement Borden filed with Cobb Elections, he indicated that he has direct ownership in four companies: Real Estate Central Inc., 3590 Cherokee St, Suite 301-C in Kennesaw; Checkpoint Inc. in Wasilla, Alaska; Cool Dreams Inc., a non-profit foundation in Wasilla, Alaska; and New Grove Limited, an agricultural and natural resources firm in Owensboro, Ky.

In 2002, after three years of training, Borden completed the Iditarod dog-sled race over 1,152 miles from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska.

Borden has a foundation - Cool Dreams, a non-profit organization that teaches character lessons to schoolchildren based on Bill's "tales of the trails" in the Iditarod - that is registered in Wasilla. Bill Borden says Cool Dreams also is licensed to do business in Georgia. On his application to the Georgia's Secretary of State for the license, he lists a Wasilla address as his residence.