West Maui Taxpayers Association
  • HOME
  • Olowalu Fire Station
  • WMTAPAC22
  • Affordable Housing
  • West Maui Lifesavers
  • Wall of Honor
  • Support WMTA
    • Membership - One Time Payment
    • Membership - Recurring Payment
    • Donations
    • Wills & Trusts
    • Charity Walk
  • Newsletter
  • Emergency Planning
  • News Blog
  • About Us
    • Goals & Objectives
    • Accomplishments
    • Board of Directors
    • WMTA vs WMIF
  • Contact
  • Subscribe

[Weekly Commentary A Veil of Secrecy Around Revenue EstimatesBy Tom Yamachika, President]

7/29/2019

0 Comments

 
​A Veil of Secrecy Around Revenue Estimates
By Tom Yamachika, President

In this week’s article, we spotlight yet another attempt by a government agency to shroud its operations in the shadows.

During any legislative session, our Department of Taxation furnishes a very important service to our legislators. It provides revenue estimates on various bills going through the legislative process. Sometimes it includes in its public testimony the end result—the bill will result in the State gaining $x million per year, for example—but it doesn’t disclose how it got to that number.

A local tax attorney asked for the Department’s revenue estimates on a particular bill, including the underlying assumptions, source data and documents, and computations it uses to create those estimates.  After the Department refused to turn them over, he went to the state’s Office of Information Practices, or OIP.  In May, OIP issued Formal Opinion F19-05, ruling against the Department and ordering the revenue estimate materials turned over.

In early July, the Department appealed OIP’s decision to First Circuit Court.  It won’t turn over the revenue estimates while the appeal works its way through the court system...which could take years.

Under the law, an agency may withhold information if disclosing it would frustrate an important government function. The Department argues that one of its tasks is to produce objective, independent revenue estimates; that task, it argues, is frustrated when it needs to bare its soul to the public.

Also, the law permits withholding of “inchoate and draft working papers of legislative committees.”  The Department urges that its revenue estimates are provided for the benefit and use of legislative committees and that no other staff or agency is able to perform this function.

So, I have a few questions here:
Since when is the Department “objective” or “independent”?  It takes positions supporting or opposing several bills each session.  It’s part of the Executive Branch of government.  If the Executive Branch likes or doesn’t like a particular bill, wouldn’t it be natural for the Department’s testimony on the bill, including any revenue estimate, to be colored accordingly? 

If a revenue estimate is “objective and independent,” what’s the harm in disclosing it to the public?  According to a 2015 study published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, thirty-eight states routinely prepare publicly available “fiscal notes” to accompany legislation that would have a significant fiscal impact.  Why are we so different from them? 

Revenue estimation isn’t an exact science.  It depends heavily on the underlying assumptions.  So, why shouldn’t those assumptions be debated and analyzed like any other opinion from any other legislative testifier?

Finally, how could revenue estimates be considered the work product or work papers of a legislative committee?  The Department is an Executive Branch agency.  If its testimony finds its way into a legislative committee’s work papers, fine, the work papers are entitled to protection, but the source of the information, namely the revenue estimate and Department work papers, isn’t. 

Folks, taxpayer money paid for these revenue estimates.  Shouldn’t we taxpayers at least be able to see what we paid for?

This veil of secrecy needs to be lifted.  We should be able to make better laws if it is.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed


    If you wish to further discuss blog posts, please contat our office directly or contact us via Contact page.

    Categories

    All
    Affordable Housing & Homelessness
    Board
    Capital Improvements
    Charity Walk
    Commentaries
    Community Events
    Community Resources
    CON
    COVID 19
    Educational
    Emergency Planning
    Health & Safety
    HHARP
    Housing
    Infrastructure In West Maui
    In The News
    Kapalua Airport Runway Lights
    Kapalua Coastal Trail
    Lahaina Bypass
    Legislature Newsletters
    LLC
    Long Range Transportation Plan 2040
    Long-Range Transportation Plan 2040
    Makila
    MAUI CANCER CENTER
    Maui Cancer Center Llc
    Maui County
    Maui County Budget
    Maui County Dept Of Environmental Management
    Maui County - Dept Of Water
    Maui Destination Management Plan
    Press
    Public Safety In West Maui
    Real Property Tax
    Recycling Info
    TAT
    Tax
    Tourism
    Traffic & Roadways
    Transportation
    Video
    Vote
    Voting
    West Maui Community Plan
    West Maui Hospital
    West Maui Skate Park
    WMTA Annual Meeting
    WMTA Breakfast Events
    WMTA Candidates Night
    WMTA Disaster Preparedness
    WMTA Fundraisers
    WMTA Hot Topics
    Wmta Hot Topics Replay
    WMTA Membership
    WMTA PAC
    WMTA Sunset Sail
    WMTA Whale Watch

Quick Links: 

Home

News

About Us

Wall of Honor

Newsletter

Support WMTA
Emergency Planning

Contact

Copyright © 2021
Photo used under Creative Commons from wolfsavard
  • HOME
  • Olowalu Fire Station
  • WMTAPAC22
  • Affordable Housing
  • West Maui Lifesavers
  • Wall of Honor
  • Support WMTA
    • Membership - One Time Payment
    • Membership - Recurring Payment
    • Donations
    • Wills & Trusts
    • Charity Walk
  • Newsletter
  • Emergency Planning
  • News Blog
  • About Us
    • Goals & Objectives
    • Accomplishments
    • Board of Directors
    • WMTA vs WMIF
  • Contact
  • Subscribe