Cincinnati Enquirer...
Guest column: Centralizing tax collections vs. local abuses  
November 27, 2011 

I strongly disagree with Andrew Kulesza’s column “Tax collection plan outrage” (Nov. 19) regarding Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s proposal to centralize collection of municipal income taxes. I disagree with Gov. Kasich on most issues, but this proposal is an excellent idea. I have been a CPA in this town for a long, long time, advising clients since 1986 on various financial and tax matters. I believe that this is not an expansion of big government as Mr. Kulesza states, but cutting back the abuses of local governments that make more and more complex local tax laws and enforce them like the Big Brother Mr. Kulesza seems worried about. 

I had an individual tax client, a Blue Ash resident, get pulled over for a traffic stop in Blue Ash. He was late on filing his 2008 Blue Ash income tax return, for which he had no tax due. Apparently the city issued a bench warrant for his arrest and he was taken away in handcuffs in front of his children during this traffic stop. I have heard several stories just like this one over the last few years, especially as local governments get more and desperate for funding. 

On a larger scale, I prepare business income tax returns for over 100 construction contractors in Greater Cincinnati. Every time they do even a small job or repair in one of the over 500 municipalities in our area, they have to get a permit, file withholding taxes for every hour of work performed by each employee, and then we prepare local business income tax returns for each city. I have one client we have to prepare over 60 local income tax returns for, versus filing one return to Ohio and letting Columbus disburse the funds. 

The state of Ohio tax department has always been more efficient and effective and easier than any local tax department I have ever worked with the last 25 years. Mr. Kulesza states that this proposal will “transfer jobs to Columbus, leaving the competent local workers unemployed.” I would dispute the competency of the local tax department employees in most cities. Most of the ones I have worked with were more like Barney Fife with a bullet in their pocket, trying to push around hardworking taxpayers. Mr. Kulesza talks about how, in his city, “for those who are delinquent, our tax commissioner is now at their door within days.” I see this as an abuse of big government. 

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