A California employee union is complaining about an embryonic scheme in the state Board of Equalization to hire one or more private collection firms to track down those who owe taxes to the state.
The Service Employees International Union says the state's own tax collectors could do the job just as well, for far less cost, if they were equipped with up-to-date tracking tools.
SEIU obviously wants to bolster civil service worker ranks and stave off privatization. But in this instance, given the identity of the tax collection firm that is most aggressive in seeking a contract, the union's concerns appear to be well placed.
A Texas-based law firm called Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson (LGBS) has hired a veteran politician and former Board of Equalization member, Johan Klehs, to lobby his former colleagues and, it hopes, secure a contract that would give it a juicy piece of the state's estimated $8 billion in uncollected taxes.
LGBS is huge, with operations in dozens of states and contracts, it says, with 1,800 state and local government agencies to collect taxes, parking fines and other overdue accounts. It even had a collection contract with the Internal Revenue Service, one of three firms to receive the business under an experimental IRS program. However, a year ago the feds dropped LGBS for reasons they never would specify, while retaining the other two private tax collectors.
Just a couple of months ago, for instance, LGBS was fired by the city of Chicago after it was revealed that it had bankrolled a vacation trip for the city official who oversaw its contract to collect unpaid parking fines, which had generated $33.6 million in commissions for the firm.
"Because this is a law firm, we believe it should be held to the highest ethical standards," Chicago's corporation counsel, Mara Georges, said in a statement announcing that LGBS had been fired. "For this reason we are terminating their engagement with the city."
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The Service Employees International Union says the state's own tax collectors could do the job just as well, for far less cost, if they were equipped with up-to-date tracking tools.
SEIU obviously wants to bolster civil service worker ranks and stave off privatization. But in this instance, given the identity of the tax collection firm that is most aggressive in seeking a contract, the union's concerns appear to be well placed.
A Texas-based law firm called Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson (LGBS) has hired a veteran politician and former Board of Equalization member, Johan Klehs, to lobby his former colleagues and, it hopes, secure a contract that would give it a juicy piece of the state's estimated $8 billion in uncollected taxes.
LGBS is huge, with operations in dozens of states and contracts, it says, with 1,800 state and local government agencies to collect taxes, parking fines and other overdue accounts. It even had a collection contract with the Internal Revenue Service, one of three firms to receive the business under an experimental IRS program. However, a year ago the feds dropped LGBS for reasons they never would specify, while retaining the other two private tax collectors.
Just a couple of months ago, for instance, LGBS was fired by the city of Chicago after it was revealed that it had bankrolled a vacation trip for the city official who oversaw its contract to collect unpaid parking fines, which had generated $33.6 million in commissions for the firm.
"Because this is a law firm, we believe it should be held to the highest ethical standards," Chicago's corporation counsel, Mara Georges, said in a statement announcing that LGBS had been fired. "For this reason we are terminating their engagement with the city."
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