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Clodfelter on tax reform effort (audio)

Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Mecklenberg County Democrat, spoke to a Greensboro Bar Association function at the Elon University Law School Monday. The topic: North Carolina latest tax reform effort.

You may remember, back during the General Assembly session, Clodfelter was a leading voice calling for the remake of the state’s tax system. Doing so, the argument went, would not only make revenues more stable but help the state make up a growing budget deficit. (Background.)

However, while the Senate had a proposal, they never unleashed a bill. And House members were unwilling to agree blindly to a tax reform effort that was viewed largely as a product of the Senate.

But when the House and Senate finally inked a budget deal, there was an agreement to continue the tax reform discussions. In fact, the House and Senate Finance Committees will come back outside of session to continue their discussions. While not unheard of, such an arrangement is unusual. Typically standing committees don’t meet outside of the legislative session.

Clodfelter said Monday that those meetings were due to start in two weeks. He was also careful in how he cast his remarks.

“I’m not going to give you a detailed plan here. Frankly, that would not be a responsible thing for me to do,” Clodfelter said. “We’re about to start discussions again with our colleagues in the House and the Senate, and I hope we come out with a plan that is jointly shared and not any one person’s plan.”

Although the tax reform plan was a Senate position during the budget negotiations, it was closely associated with Clodfelter. And while he is well regarded as a very intelligent senator, Clodfelter has a reputation as sometimes being impatient or abrasive. That remark seemed both conscious of that reputation and aimed at defusing any brewing clash of personalities.

A lot of Clodfelter’s presentation will sound familiar if you were paying attention during the session. He talked about broadening the base (increasing the number of things that are taxed, including services) and lowering the rate (the percentage charged on income or sales). But for you tax geeks, listen in at this link:

Clodfelter did some Q & A after his session. Among the topics he covered:

• One audience member asked how they could get more lawyers in the legislature. Apparently, having 25 percent (give or take) of the seats in the 170-seat legislature isn’t enough for the legal community. Granted, these guys deal with the law for a living, but can you imagine any other profession saying they ought to have more than a quarter of the policy-making seats in the state?
• He was asked to handicap the chances that tax reform would get done: “I don’t know how to do that. I just have to sort of remain committed to getting it done because I just don’t think there’s an alternative…We’ve got to do it because it’s the only thing we can do.”
• Clodfelter was asked about the rationale between taxing all amusements at the same rate. Right now, you pay the equivalent of sales tax on tickets for a sporting event but not other forms of entertainment like going to a museum. “The push-back was all from golfers…I’m serious. It was almost exclusively from the golfing community.”
• Clodfelter was asked about the lottery at one point: “There was legislation proposed and discussed to change the distribution of lottery proceeds this session … But those never saw the light of day because the supporters of the lottery were afraid that if any bill on the lottery got to the floor again, an amendment would be offered to repeal it and it would pass.” Worth noting at this point: Clodfelter was not and is not a lottery backer.

Click below for more of that second part of the converstaion.