People to Watch in Public Finance: Amy Pitter, In Her Own Words

Today, MFT spotlights Amy Pitter, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. She is responsible for overseeing nearly 2,000 DOR employees in offices across the Bay State who work in tax administration, child support enforcement and local services for cities and towns.

Since her appointment in October 2011, one of the Commissioner’s key focus areas has been on DOR 360 , an initiative dedicated to understanding and improving the agency’s interactions with the communities it serves. Under the banner of DOR 360, the agency has conducted meetings and focus groups and surveyed taxpayers and practitioners to develop initiatives and programs that promote better communication and collaboration. Commissioner Pitter recruited a 16-member council of advisors who represent a broad range of taxpayer, practitioner and business interests to encourage citizen participation in shaping tax administration. The DOR 360 initiative has already led to beneficial changes to enable taxpayers to get more service online and resolve tax disputes quicker as well as improve audit and collection practices.

Commissioner Pitter brings to the position extensive experience in both the public and private sectors including a prior stint with DOR as Deputy Commissioner of Taxpayer Services and Deputy Commissioner of Child Support Enforcement. In 2000, Commissioner Pitter left DOR for CGI, an independent information technology and business process services firm, where she consulted with agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Australian Tax Office on large systems implementations, strategic planning initiatives and program design with an emphasis on customer relationship management and taxpayer education and outreach.

Getting to know Commisioner Pitter

Present Position: Commisioner, Massachusetts Department of Revenue

Previous Position: Executive Consultant, CGI

Education: Masters in Accounting, Northeastern University; Law Degree, New England School of Law; B.A. in History, Connecicut College

Questions:

How did you choose a career in public finance?

I started working in the public sector over 20 years ago. With a background in law and accounting, the Department of Revenue seemed like a good fit.  It actually wasn’t until I started working here that I realized how incredibly satisfying it was – and how much it mattered to me to be in a position to do a lot of good for a lot of people.

What part of the job do you like the best?

I think how varied it is. In any given day I am dealing with issues around workforce development, systems implementations, fraud, collections and tax policy.

What would an outsider find most surprising about your job?

How little time I spend thinking about tax law and tax policy. I think the three things I think about most are: how to improve operations and the taxpayer experience; how to use data and analytics to improve compliance and how to make sure that the two big system projects we have underway are successful in meeting our business objectives and positioning us for the future. 

Can you describe a highlight of your career or you favorite project?

Soon after the Governor appointed me as Commissioner in October 2011 I launched an initiative to find new pathways for full circle communications with DOR stakeholders, measure the delivery of customer service and give taxpayers more of a voice in state tax administration. DOR 360, as we call it, led to new ways to reach taxpayers through an Advisory Council, customer service surveys, focus groups and practitioner outreach.  As a result of improved communications, we now can offer taxpayers an option for expediting tax disputes, simplified and easier to understand combined reporting tax forms, more online services and are working on a pilot to re-write notices in plain language.

What was the biggest challenge in building your career?

One of the biggest challenges the Department is facing is the upcoming retirement of the baby boomer generation. We are going to lose a third of our workforce over the next 5 years, and many of them have a level of experience and knowledge that is very hard to replace. We need to be very proactive about succession planning and developing a skilled and diverse workforce to be our next generation of leaders. To that end we’ve partnered with a local community college on a new degree program in taxation and are offering an internship to create a pipeline for qualified applicants. We are also about to kick off an emerging leaders program to develop and motivate our newer employees.

How has the acceptance of women in top positions changed in the course of your career?

I’ve had a long career in finance – so the change has been dramatic.  I think one of the things that matters is that there is now a cohort of women executives, so that means there are mentors, colleagues and friends. The culture actually changes (think of the tv show “Mad Men” for the before picture.) It’s one of the reasons I’m so committed to increasing diversity in our workforce here at DOR. It’s not enough to recruit people in protected classes; we need to make sure that we are recruiting for senior positions as well to make sure that we get the culture change that makes DOR an employer of choice for women, people of color, and people with disabilities.

What advice would you give to women starting a public finance career? 

I think women thinking about their career should strongly consider the public sector, especially today.  As I mentioned, the upcoming “silver tsunami” of retirements is going to create boundless opportunities. For me, the opportunity to make a difference for taxpayers is what drew me to the public sector and what continues to keep me motivated every day. We collect the money that funds the work of the Commonwealth, and nearly every person in the Commonwealth interacts with us in some way at least once a year. The opportunity to make that interaction a better one for literally millions of individuals is pretty hard to beat.