[Vision2020] Impact of Hiring New Tax Auditors

[Tom Trail]

Visionaries:   You may recall that at the last minute of the 03 Legislative
session, we approved the hiring of 8 tax auditors and 7 compliance specialists.
The primary job of these new hires starting July 1st was to work toward
collecting the estimated $88,000,000 owed the state in unpaid taxes.  Under
Gov. Phil Batt a number of similar positions were established and resulted
in a positive return to the state.

I've long been a strong advocate in hiring more personnel for the State
Tax Commission to collect taxes due the state.  I checked with Commissioner
Hammond of the State Tax Commission in June to see if a formula had been
developed to assess the impact of the new hires on a month to month basis.
Dr. Malcolm Renfrew, Moscow, and Rep. Mike Mitchell, Lewiston have also been
strong supporters of this legislative initiative.

The results for July are the following:

                               Investment            Collections

7 Compliance Specialists        $77,192               $518,643

8 Auditors                       28,817                334,939

     Totals                     $106,009               $853,582

     Net to the State    $747,583

It looks like a good start

Rep. Tom Trail
-- 
Dr. Tom Trail
International Trails
1375 Mt. View Rd.
Moscow, Id. 83843
Tel:  (208) 882-6077
Fax:  (208) 882-0896
e mail ttrail@moscow.com