Sen. Dan Clodfelter, one of the chief advocates of a tax reform plan, said Wednesday that lawmakers won't try to overhaul the system in the budget they're about to write.
"We’ve got to do something immediate just to bring the budget in balance," Clodfelter said. "School is opening in three weeks' time. We cannot leave folks hanging."
Clodfelter and other Senate leaders were pushing a plan that would lower tax rates but, among other steps, extend the sales tax to more services. The proposal tried to address the structural problem in the tax system that repeatedly has been highlighted by study commissions and experts: that it doesn't keep revenue stable enough to sustain the state through economic downturns.
Clodfelter said Senate leaders realized they were proposing a major change and intentionally didn't outline details in hopes that lawmakers in the House and Senate would hammer out the mechanics together.
"We were trying to see if we could do it differently," Clodfelter said.
There isn't enough time now, though, and the legislature needs to put together a budget. Clodfelter said Senate leaders will continue to work on the reform plan in the coming months and said it has momentum now.
Blog RSS feed
