In PD: Kasich Administration Seeks to Move Local Income Tax Collection to Columbus

From Wednesday's print version but online now.  Would you like to see RITA disappear and have the state centralize the $4 billion collected by local municipalities in local income taxes?

The article includes this quote from a state taxation department spokesman, Gary Gudmundson:

"The concern with the municipal income tax is it's so widespread and so varied from city to town to village that it's a burden on business taxpayers who are functioning in many different locales," said Gudmundson.

And it also included this information regarding Lt. Governor Mary Taylor's interest in the change:

Earlier this month, Taylor told a panel beginning talks on cutting red tape for small businesses that a state governmental program she heads called the Common Sense Initiative is looking at the centralization idea.

Taylor reportedly told the panelists that centralizing collections would be "a great step forward in helping ease the burden" on businesses that cross jurisdictional lines or have multiple returns in different municipalities.

The Ohio Municipal League, to which the City of Pepper Pike does belong, has this statement in the article:

"This indicates to us that central collection is at the top of the list for the next round of wholesale changes in store for Ohio municipalities," said the newsletter, referring to Testa's public comments about the plan at the tax seminar. "We believe this radical proposal would be a tremendous financial blow to Ohio's municipalities, would be impractical in a wide range of areas from enforcement to fair application."

The concerns include an additional decrease in revenue flowing to municipalities, a less responsive tax administration and the creation of a new and unneeded level of bureaucracy that would require additional fees. The article says, "...regional tax authorities take about 1.5 percent in administrative fees to handle local tax collections, while other municipalities let their own departments handle it."

Well - what do you think?