Monday, July 10, 2006

REVENUE DEPARTMENT DISSES AUDITOR CANDIDATE

Mark Wright, a Springfield lawmaker now running for Missouri auditor, was one of the House Republicans talking up a reform plan for the state's fee offices.

Wright apparently misspoke when he described a Springfield fee office agent making more than $1 million a year. That flub drew the immediate wrath of Department of Revenue boss Trish Vincent. The DoR website now features a blast against the Republican reformers and says their plan is "incomplete and uninformed." The harshness goes on:
In one of the most grievous misstatements made today about contract offices, it was asserted by Rep. Mark Wright (R, Springfield) that one contract agent made more than $1 million a year. This is clearly not accurate. The old state run Springfield office did collect close to $1 million in fees, but this is a gross number and would not account for the costs to operate an office. Under this administration’s improvements, the office has actually been divided into three separate branches, providing service across the metro area. Office hours and the state’s assistance hotline hours have also been expanded to make conducting business with the department easier for customers than ever before.
We've talked with someone with intimate knowledge of the way fee offices run; this person said overhead might eat up 50 percent of total revenues. So no, it's not a million bucks in profit -- only a half-mill. Who could survive on that paltry amount?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think I have ever seen a better definition of a party hack than the good candidate. I had dinner once behind him at a fa fa restaurant downtown and he oozed with the air of a climber, a guy seeking power. That is not the kind of guy we should elect. I guess that's the type that wants to run for office in the first place, though. Is it just me or are the Republicans going to cut this guy lose?

Anonymous said...

Wright is a bobo, to be sure. But he's just smart enough to sense that enough of his own constituents are less than enthralled with the current governor. Too bad for him that no matter how many "reform" proposals he might want to trot out, they won't wash the stench of Blunt from his skin.

And you can bet your license plate that the "harshness" posted at the DOR website wasn't even written by Trish Vincent. Trish Vincent is the Puppet in this play. Spence Jackson is the Puppeteer.

Anonymous said...

And, I might add, Matt Blunt is just the Pup.

Anonymous said...

"Who could survive..."
Some really rich muni court dude.

Woe to Marcus Wightus. Adieu.

Anonymous said...

Did you see the fat, middle-aged white jerk on KY 3 the other night in their report on this blowing "I deserved to get this job because I was a large contributor to the Republican party." In the name of Nell Carter, Gimmie a F-ing break! That was about as arrogant as anything I had ever seen. He certainly did make anyone say, "We don't need to reform this system."