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State predicts problem in collecting back taxes
State tax collectors are predicting they won't be able to get as much money this budget year from scofflaw taxpayers as they did last year.
Gale Garriott, director of the state Department of Revenue, is predicting that his auditors will be able to find only about $104 million in taxes that should have been paid but were not. That compares with the more than $117 million they brought in last year.
Garriott, in a memo to state lawmakers, also figured that revenue from collections - people who are sent bills but ignore them - will be down about $20 million, to $171 million.
Those predictions of less revenue come even as legislators are struggling to plug a $1.2 billion gap this fiscal year between the taxes they anticipated collecting and the current level of spending.
Dan Zemke, spokesman for the agency, said the lower projections are simply a reflection of the state's poor economic conditions.
He said bankruptcies of businesses and individuals will make some collections impossible. And Zemke said other taxpayers simply don't have anything to pay.
Even those with some resources, he said, need more time to pay up.
Beyond that, Zemke said there is a recognition that squeezing taxpayers who already are in financial trouble may not always be the best idea.
"We don't want to be in a position of being the cause of somebody going out of business," he said. "We want them to remain in business and continue to pay in the future."
The problems that Zemke's agency is having bringing cash into the state treasury has implications for counties and cities, too.
Foremost is that both share in state revenue. Less money for the state means less money for them.
The Department of Revenue also does actual sales tax collections for some cities. And the same tax-collection problems exist on the city level, as well.
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