The above were only three of many proposed tax reforms thrown out at the first meeting of the reconstituted state Tax Modernization Project, held Friday at the Charleston Marriott. It is the committee’s job to review the suggestions and weed out those ideas the governor’s office could take to the state Legislature when lawmakers meet in regulation session early next year.

“We want to come up with proposals we can move forward this upcoming session,” said State Tax Commissioner Christopher Morris, who is chairman of the modernization project.

The committee’s job isn’t to find out ways to raise or lower taxes, but to brainstorm ideas to make the state’s tax code competitive compared to other states and to make it more stable in terms of revenue.

Neither is without political ramifications. For example, state law is structured in such a way that married couples where both spouses work might pay as much as 15 to 20 percent more in income taxes than if they were not married.

There’s no quick fix for the state’s marriage penalty, Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow said. Eliminating it either means a significant cut in state revenue or restructuring the tax code in such as way that some people who pay more in taxes.

Gov. Joe Manchin first formed the Tax Modernization Project a few years ago to look at modernizing state tax law. It issued its first report in 2006, and from that work came legislation eliminating business franchise taxes, reducing corporate net income taxes and implementing combined reporting for corporations doing business in the state.

He reorganized it earlier this year to study what had been done in terms of reform and look at what remained to be done.

State officials, economists and representatives from both labor and business make up the committee. Separate subcommittees took up individual areas of reform, from telecommunications taxes property taxes.

Committee members noted the state’s telecommunications tax dates from 1930 and the state actually doesn’t collect any money from it, since it exempts any business that is not a monopoly.

Property taxes are a bit more complicated given they are the main source of revenue for counties and a major source of money for cities. Marshall University economist Cal Kent said there were legal changes the state could pursue to make it easier for local governments to collect taxes and fees, such as allow cities to report delinquent payers to credit agencies or allow them to collect that money from landlords if their tenants don’t pay up.

The state could take measures to ensure it collects property taxes from out-of-state mineral owners, Kent said. It could explore allowing counties to pass their own sales taxes to raise revenue for both counties and cities. It also should clarify its homestead exemption, given there are four different exemptions for homeowners to choose from, and that is more confusing than helpful.

As far as income taxes, the committee mulled whether it would make sense for West Virginia to tie its taxes into the federal earned income tax credit.

The committee made no decisions about which proposals they would advocate the Legislature take up. They will meet again in December.

However, they are taking suggestion and proposals from anyone in the public wanting to weigh in on tax reform. Web users can email comments to wvtmp@wv.gov.