Buchanan Town Councilwoman Crystal Ware, who is running for a seat on the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors, finds herself having to deal with an unexpected campaign issue -- the taxes she hasn't paid.

Ware, a Republican, owes the county $2,276 in delinquent real estate and personal property taxes, some of it due more than two years ago. She also owes the town of Buchanan $361.38 in taxes dating to 2007, a fact that has Botetourt political watchers abuzz. The question is: Will voters care about Ware's tax delinquency when they go to the polls in November?

"Local elected officials should pay their taxes, and voters usually hold it against them when they don't," said Bob Gibson, executive director of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia. "It's usually an issue that voters take note of."

Ware, a 38-year-old single mother, blamed her failure to pay her taxes on sundry medical bills that she and her daughter racked up and that she is currently trying to pay off. Her tax delinquency, she said, shouldn't be an issue in her effort to unseat incumbent Supervisor Terry Austin, a former Republican who is running for re-election as an independent in the county's Buchanan District.

"I don't appreciate people bringing this up as an issue," she said. "Do they even have a clue what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck?"

Ware isn't the only elected official in the Roanoke region to owe back taxes: Rocky Mount Town Councilman Jerry Greer owed Franklin County $204 in personal property taxes and $3,355 in real estate taxes, according to the delinquent taxes list updated monthly on the county Web site. After answering questions from The Roanoke Times, Greer paid $3,000 of his balance Wednesday, he said. Greer was re-elected to council in 2006; his term ends next year.

Greer, who owns Pizza King and rental properties around Rocky Mount, said the tough economy is taking a toll on his business ventures. "This is the toughest time I've ever seen in my 40 years in business." Tenants of his rental properties are also having a hard time and some haven't paid rent in months, a circumstance that affects his ability to pay his taxes, Greer said.

But unlike Greer's situation, Ware's tax delinquency has become a political issue. Austin said he's heard people talking about it for several weeks, and he believes they are right to be concerned. "You should be required to stay current on your taxes" to sit on the board of supervisors, Austin said. Being a tax delinquent, he added, "makes it tough to sit there and vote on setting the tax rate."

Botetourt County Attorney Elizabeth Dillon said there is no state provision disqualifying county supervisors from holding office because they're tax scofflaws. "If you were elected to the board and you already owe delinquent taxes, you can't be removed from the board. You can be removed for being convicted of a felony."

The Botetourt Republican Party tapped Ware to run for Austin's seat earlier this year after Austin withdrew his request for Republican support. A Republican at the time, Austin had supported former Democratic Gov. Mark Warner in his successful Senate campaign against former Republican Gov. Jim Gilmore. Austin said he decided to abandon his effort to seek the Republican nomination because he felt the party had set up a nomination process to penalize him for supporting a Democrat. (Doug Gimbert, chairman of the Botetourt Republican Party, said the process penalized no one.)

Ware said Republican officials, in sizing her up as a candidate, asked her if she had any skeletons in her closet. She told them no, not mentioning the delinquent taxes because, she said, she has planned all along to eventually pay them off.

"I believe in paying taxes and I believe in paying what I owe," she said when contacted Tuesday. "I feel like I work hard and try to pay my taxes.

"My goal is to have it paid off by Election Day."

In Rocky Mount, meanwhile, Greer could receive more prodding to pay the tax money he owes. Franklin County supervisors gave the treasurer permission earlier this year to hire an attorney to start collecting more than $200,000 in delinquent taxes from county residents.