Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Tax Information Access topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate committee rejects bill letting legislators request businesses' sales-tax payment status
Summary
A Senate revenue committee declined to pass a bill that would have allowed members of the General Assembly to request limited sales-and-use tax payment status information for specific businesses, after lawmakers expressed concerns about the Legislature acting as an enforcer of local tax compliance.
A Senate Revenue & Tax committee voted down a proposal that would have allowed members of the General Assembly to request from the Department of Finance and Administration whether particular businesses paid sales and use taxes during a specified period.
The bill's sponsor, Senator Penzo, told the committee the amendment he offered simply adds legislators as an authorized requester of reports that now can be requested only by a county or municipal chief executive. "I just wanted, us to have the ability as legislators to be able to do the same thing," Penzo said, arguing legislators sometimes need direct access for constituent questions when local chiefs may be unwilling to cooperate.
Committee members pushed back. Senator Dismayne questioned the need for the General Assembly to hold that authority, asking, "what why would the general assembly need that information?" and expressing concern the Legislature could be perceived as acting as a watchdog or enforcer of businesses. Senator Dismaine (phonetic transcript variant) said the move could set a "very bad precedent" and feared the authority might be used punitively.
The measure drew additional discussion about what the DFA report would contain. Penzo said the report would list a company's name and primary address and indicate only whether taxes were paid during the requested period, not how much was remitted. He described the change as a limited tool to help gauge who is paying taxes in a jurisdiction, not a mechanism to obtain dollar amounts.
The committee first adopted an amendment that added cosponsors. Later, a motion to give the bill a "do pass as amended" recommendation failed on a voice vote. Committee leadership announced the motion failed; no roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript.
The committee did not record any formal direction to staff or follow-up assignments on this bill in the public discussion.
(Procedure note: remarks above occurred during the committee's consideration of Senate Bill 7 on the Revenue & Tax - Senate agenda.)
