Opposing local control

Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham's recent letter opposing localized collection of sales tax revenue is, for lack of a better term, pretty silly ...

We previously provided the $1.6 billion figure in the Joint House and Senate Appropriations Budget Briefing on January 21, 2009. It is actually the total amount of all delinquent tax accounts of all tax types dating back to 1988. Senator Chip Rogers (R) is correct that “there is no way” there is $1.0 billion of sales tax annually which goes uncollected.

We will always agree that more collectors will always collect more money. If the solution was as simple as hiring private companies to collect taxes, many states and the IRS would have been privatizing tax collections for decades. Alabama, which authorized local collection in 1947, is joined by only Louisiana, Colorado, and Arizona out of the 36 states which have local sales taxes.

Of course, Graham parrots a baseless speculation by Sen. Chip Rogers and then proceeds to completely reinforce the argument put forward by Rep. DuBose Porter that localized collection could be more efficient.

Mind you that Rogers offers absolutely no evidence to support his claim that 'there is no way' there is $1 billion in uncollected sales taxes out there, instead relying on saying it loudly enough so that it 'sounds right' to folks listening. There may not be $1 billion out there ... or there may very well be as Alabama discovered when it switched to localized collection. The point is, you don't know if you don't try.

Likewise, Graham attempts to suggest that because more states centralize their collection process then it arguably must work better. Of course, the evidence from Alabama suggests the exact opposite meaning, for all practical purposes, something about that system works well.

All in all, this isn't a policy rebuttal, but rather a political ploy aimed at protecting Graham's turf. His office collects the revenue, and he's worried that it will lessen his influence if it's taken away. It's blatantly transparent for those who wish to see it.

It just makes me wonder ... what world are we leaving in when Republicans are defending a state bureaucracy and opposing local control?