Davis' Local Tax Collection Bill Clears Committee

Press Release

Davis' Local Tax Collection Bill Clears Committee

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said today he was "most pleased" the committee approved a measure that would enable local governments to withhold federal refunds to retire overdue local tax debts.

Davis' legislation—known as the O'Leary Amendment because the bill was prompted by a suggestion from longtime Arlington County, Va., treasurer Frank O'Leary—directs the Treasury Department to establish a pilot program modeled on programs already in place to collect overdue child support and state tax payments. Local governments would be allowed to collect only overdue tax debts and even then only after they had attempted all other means.

"People who don't pay their local tax debts put a burden on honest taxpayers," said Davis, who sponsored the O'Leary Amendment along with Reps. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., Mike Turner, R-Ohio, Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., and Jim Moran, D-Va. "The cost of providing services such as fire, police and code enforcement certainly hasn't decreased. It is only right that everyone who owes pays."

Source