Tax reform

Gov. Joe Manchin plans to call a special session for November to discuss changes in the state tax system.

A document outlining deficiencies in the current system and recommendations for change is sitting somewhere in the governor's archives. It's the report issued by the Underwood administration.

But seriously, folks, does anyone expect a Democratic governor and a Democrat-controlled Legislature to give that report any serious thought?

From this writer's point of view, any change in the state tax system would start with getting rid of that ridiculous privilege tax or whatever it's called. It's the one that required me to pay sales tax all over again when I moved to this state. I had already paid a sales tax to Ohio when I bought the car. So I move over here, and I have to pay it again. No wonder so many people who move to this area don't even think about buying a home on this side of the Ohio River. The privilege tax and other taxes probably are responsible for much of the growth in the Fairland Local School District.

Some folks will get out their calculators and say the overall tax burden is less in West Virginia than it is in Ohio, but the perception of higher taxes here and the types of taxes that are levied help drive people away from this state.

(Note to tax officials: You can nitpick my use of "sales tax" if you wish. Call it whatever, in effect it is a sales tax. You didn't collect the tax on me when I bought the car, but you collected it when I moved here.).