HONOLULU -- A woman who was just appointed by the governor to the Legislature ran a troubled business that did not pay tens of thousands of dollars in state and federal taxes, KITV 4 Island Television News has learned.

Beverly Harbin was sworn in to the state House seat representing downtown and Makiki Monday morning at the state Capitol. Harbin is a small business advocate who Gov. Linda Lingle appointed to replace Democrat Rep. Ken Hiraki. Hiraki stepped down from his state House seat to take a private sector job.

State records show that Beverly Harbin and her husband owned an auto repair business called Hon Hawaii, which KITV visited in 1999 for a story about Hawaii's excise taxes. Harbin complained back then about the "pyramid effect" of excise taxes in the state.

"I pay 4 percent and then when the customers get their total bill for, say $200 plus whatever supplied, they get charged another 4 percent on that," Harbin said in the 1999 interview.

The trouble is that the state Tax Department said Harbin's company was not paying all its excise taxes in 1997 through 1999. Her company ran into trouble and closed its Kakaako location the next year.

The state Tax Department filed a lien against Harbin's company for $103,822 in unpaid general excise and employees' withholding taxes in 1999.

State tax officials filed a second lien in 2000 when the company owed another $21,138 in unpaid taxes. The state Tax Department said the liens are still in effect, meaning the company has not paid back all the money, or settled for a lesser amount.

In 2001, records show the federal government filed a tax lien against Harbin for nearly $5,950 in unpaid federal taxes. Harbin paid that money back three years later when the lien was released in 2004.

State records show Harbin's auto repair shop has had trouble paying other bills. Three companies and individuals filed judgments against Harbin and her husband for $25,000 worth of back rent and other services in recent years.

Harbin's spokeswoman said Harbin would not speak about the story on Monday, but the spokeswoman said Harbin would talk about it Tuesday.

The spokeswoman claimed that many of these debts have been settled. However, KITV 4 Island Television News found the most recent judgment filed earlier this year for $71,306 in back rent for an Aiea warehouse is still unpaid, according to the people seeking the money.

State law requires the governor to appoint a Democrat to fill an empty Democrat's seat. However, Beverly Harbin was not a Democrat until three days after Hiraki announced his resignation from the state House.

Lingle ignored the four candidates recommended by the Democratic Party. Lingle's spokesman said the governor's staff did not know about her tax and debt problems when they appointed her. A representative for Lingle, Russell Pang, said they did a criminal background check, but did not check Harbin's tax records.