It has been brought to my attention that I have not sent out a legislative update lately and some people have missed receiving those.
Back in June, I was asked to serve as chairman of a House Republican Caucus commitee whose purpose was to study tax reform and develop recommendations for our Caucus agenda.
Since the beginning of August, we have had eight meetings in Columbia with four of those meetings happening in the last four weeks. We had three public meetings where we heard from tax reform groups, economists and CPAs. We then continued with private meetings so that we could openly discuss options.
I have purposely not published details of these meetings out of respect to the other committee members and the Caucus. Once we make our recommendations to the Caucus, they will determine whether or not to make them official agenda items.
It should be noted that the eighteen members of the committee have dedicated a lot of time during our “off” season to this issue – and they did it without mileage or expense reimbursement.
Personally, my time spent on this subject has been very beneficial. I have studied the tax reform studies from several states along with our own TRAC report. It has been a great learning experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as chairman.