It’s been 46 years since the state convened a special commission to overhaul the tax code. A state senator who thinks it’s time for another one is filing a bill to create a new commission.
Senator Bob Dixon’s tax-break bill this year failed to survive a governor’s veto when Dixon, from Springfield, decided not to try for an override. Instead, he is introducing a bill convening the first state tax study commission since 1968. The commission would go beyond legislators talking about changes. “I’d like to see tax attorneys, CPAs, business people, folks from the municipalities, folks from the counties and, of course, the director of the Department (of Revenue).”
Dixon says the study would not be a one-session study because the tax code is so large. He expects the study to take “two or three years” and concedes, “Nobody in this building has all the answers and I’m chief among my colleagues in that. We just don’t know what we don’t know,” he says.
He does know some tax proposals will be filed for the next session. And he’ll renew some of his 2014 proposals for tax breaks on data centers, fitness centers, dance studios and some non-profit issues. But Dixon hopes lawmakers in 2015 will turn back substantial changes in the tax code..