The Boortz effect: In fairness to DeSantis, his support for the FairTax seems to be more the exception, rather than the rule, in his approach to taxes. The Florida governor supported the GOP tax law as a House member in 2017, and pushed to cut sales taxes in the Sunshine State. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a frequent FairTax critic, figures that DeSantis most likely signed onto the legislation to express general frustration with the IRS and the current tax system, not because he believed the national sales tax should become law as literally written. Millions of people in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina used to hear a show from a conservative talk radio host named Neal Boortz, who championed the FairTax for years and years — meaning lawmakers from those states frequently had to answer questions from constituents about the idea. One easy way to deflect those questions, Norquist said, was to just co-sponsor the FairTax. “They’ve been told this is the only way out of the mess we’re in,” Norquist said of listeners of The Neal Boortz Show. “And nobody has time to explain [all the problems with the FairTax] with someone in a 15-minute talk to the country club.” Still, other Republicans previously saw DeSantis’ support for the FairTax as a potential political opening. Most notably, Adam Putnam, the former agricultural commissioner who came in second in the 2018 gubernatorial primary, put out attack ads against DeSantis referencing the national sales tax. But wait, there’s more: DeSantis isn’t the only Republican heavyweight to once sign on to the FairTax proposal. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who's now chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, co-sponsored it in 2013 and 2015. When asked by Morning Tax why he is no longer a co-sponsor the legislation, Smith responded simply, “I’m chairman of the committee.” Speaking of…: Smith is convening his first hearing as Ways and Means chair this morning — and it won’t be in that icebox known as the committee’s hearing room. Instead, the panel will convene about three hours to the west, for a field hearing at a lumber product company in Petersburg, W.Va. That choice is in keeping with Smith’s stated vision for the committee, which includes a big focus on working families. How exactly or if that vision might lead to any real change in the GOP’s approach to tax policy remains to be seen. “We will hear directly from small business owners, workers, and families about how they have been affected by inflation, supply chain problems, and high energy costs,” Smith said in advance of today’s hearing. NOT GONNA WORK: A Kentucky law designed to make coal mined there more attractive to utilities in the state looks to be unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. Kentucky imposes a 4.5 percent severance tax on coal mined there, an approach that isn’t shared by many other coal-producing states. But a separate law requires the state’s public service commission to subtract the cost of the severance tax when approving utilities’ fuel contracts. A company from neighboring Illinois, which doesn’t have a severance tax, challenged the Kentucky law, arguing that it disadvantaged its coal. And the 6th Circuit agreed, finding that the measure almost certainly violates the dormant Commerce Clause, which bars states from discriminating against interstate commerce. Judge Joan Larsen, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump, wrote for the three-judge panel that encouraging state utilities to buy Kentucky coal was discriminatory. (A judge chosen by Bill Clinton joined Larsen’s opinion, while a George W. Bush nominee concurred.) With the ruling, the case goes back to a lower court, which will consider issuing an injunction against the law while the legal process works itself out.
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