Tax

A 21-member citizens oversight committee has decided to ask voters to levy a property tax to fund the replacement of two high schools, add classrooms to overcrowded schools, and repair aging facilities in Lafayette Parish.

The downturn in property tax receipts for municipal governments may finally have begun.

New Jersey Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-­Eristoff Tuesday told lawmakers that Gov. Chris Christie would not sign a fiscal 2012 budget that includes a tax hike on the state’s top earners.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $100 million of general obligation bonds that the Reading School District in Berks County, Pa., issued in 2005 to finance school construction and improvements.

The Arkansas Senate approved a ­measure last week that would allow the governor to put a 5-cent per gallon ­increase in state gasoline taxes on a statewide ­ballot.

CHICAGO — Illinois lawmakers should keep tax reform that raises new revenue on the table to stabilize state finances because a $7 billion structural deficit looms even with a new income-tax increase in place, a local fiscal review group warned Friday.

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress need to suspend their political squeamishness on tax increases and allow the Bush-era tax cuts to expire in 2012 if they are serious about federal deficit reform, a research group reported Thursday.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $38.77 million of defaulted special assessment bonds that were sold in 2005 by the Aberdeen Community Development District in Florida to finance infrastructure for a residential community.

The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that an investor-owned utility can demolish bond-financed pollution control facilities without jeopardizing the tax-exempt status of the bonds or its interest deductions related to the debt.

Jefferson County will not ask the Alabama Supreme Court for a rehearing on its occupational tax ruling, the Birmingham News reported Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — Maryland lawmakers are considering a 10-cent-per-gallon increase to the state’s 23.5-cent gas tax, but the government may not be able to use the potential revenue increase to back bonds for transportation projects because there is limited room under its debt cap.

DALLAS — The Louisiana State Bond Commission approved a staff report Thursday that set the par amount of net state tax-supported debt at $5.9 billion as of Dec. 31, 2010.

Texas will distribute $433.1 million of sales tax collections to local governments this month, an increase of 7.1% from March 2010. Local sales tax allocation for the first three months of the calendar year are up 7.9% from 2010.

The Internal Revenue Service and a Little Rock issuer are fighting over whether the IRS can declare bonds taxable after previously signing a closing agreement to settle a tax dispute over them.

DALLAS — Colorado’s Regional Transportation District is putting off a decision on whether to ask voters for a sales tax increase to complete the $6.7 billion FasTracks rail plan by 2017.

Illinois Senate President John Cullerton on Monday floated the idea of taxing some retirement income as part of a possible revenue-neutral overhaul of state taxes.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service made about $2.9 billion of subsidy payments to issuers of Build America Bonds and other direct-pay bonds through February, Cliff Gannett, director of the IRS’ tax-exempt bond office, said Monday.

The Kansas House Committee on Taxation has endorsed a bill to repeal the 1% increase in the state sales tax that lawmakers approved last year. The increase, to 6.3% from 5.3%, went into effect July 1.

CHICAGO — Nebraska would issue up to $500 million of bonds backed by a slice of its sales tax under a bill likely to be debated by the Legislature in the next two weeks.

DALLAS — Colorado’s Regional Transportation District should shelve plans to for a tax-hike referendum this year or risk rejection of additional funds to complete the FasTracks rail projects by 2017, according to an advisory group.