'This Guy Has Problems'

This guy being the Rotund Reverend, the tax-avoiding shakedown artist par excellence, Al Sharpton.

I'm thinking maybe he can blackmail some corporate sponsors into helping him pay off his latest debt.

Well, now that the feds have dropped their investigation of him in return for him allegedly planning to pay millions in back taxes, now New York State is supposedly going to take a crack at him.

Sure they are. We'll see how far this goes. It's not as if the guy doesn't have friends in high places, such as the future President of Earth.

It ain't over yet, Al. The feds may be done with you, but the state is just getting started.

New York authorities, who took a back seat while the feds eyed Al Sharpton, are revving up their probe of his charitable, corporate and personal bank accounts, sources said yesterday.

The move comes after the Rev. Sharpton announced he cut a deal with the Department of Justice to drop a criminal tax-fraud probe in exchange for his payment of back taxes and fines that could amount to as much as $9 million. He's already paid back $1 million, his reps said.

For a guy with no visible means of support and no real job that I can recall, he can just pony up a cool million?

Sweet gig.

"Clearly, they found no criminal reason to go forward," Sharpton scoffed at a Midtown press conference.

But state entities from the attorney general to the Department of Labor to the Department of Taxation all have tough questions for the firebrand preacher - about everything from his sloppy bookkeeping to hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes.

"This guy has problems," a state official said of Sharpton's unresolved liabilities. "He's in deep."

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's own probe into the National Action Network's suspicious lack of records isn't over.

Cuomo is scheduled to meet with the Department of Justice next week to discuss why it decided not to pursue criminal charges and how the decision affects his own investigation, a law-enforcement source said.

Looming over Sharpton's head are huge tax debts to the city and state even as he's made peace with the IRS.

Sharpton personally owes the state $392,057 in unpaid income taxes, according to a lien filed May 13 by the state Department of Taxation and Finance.

Another lien filed by the state taxman seeks $175,902 from Rev. Al Communications, one of the many business ventures Sharpton has registered to a Chelsea office.

Must be so nice to be a Democrat. You can basically get away with anything.

Well, almost.

Steven Pagones was unavailable for comment.