Everything is up to date in Kansas City ... and elsewhere in TEI.

• Author: McCormally, Timothy J.
• Position: Tax Executives Institute

In mid-April, I caught an early morning flight to Kansas City to participate in the chapter's State and Local Tax Update and Roundtable in Overland Park, Kansas. There were two special aspects of the meeting that I will discuss directly, but the core meeting stands as evidence of why TEI remains the vibrant organization it is 67 years after its founding. The meeting, which was organized by Tim Johnson of Garmin International and Pauline Rice of Sprint Nextel, began with presentations by Nick Jordan, the Secretary of Revenue, and Alana Barragan-Scott, who holds a comparable position in the State of Missouri. (The audience included one of Mr. Jordan's predecessors, Mark Beshears, who is now Vice President State and Local Tax for Sprint Nextel.)

Mr. Jordan's background is not typical of a state tax administrator. He spent more than 30 years in the travel and hospitality business. Switching to politics, he served 13 years in the state legislature, where among other things he wrote and introduced the Kansas Economic Growth Act. Appointed by new Governor Sam Brownback in 2010, Secretary Jordan has taken an active role in the development of the State's tax policy. (In many states, the director of revenue eschews such a policy role; not so in Kansas.) Mr. Jordan considers business development a core responsibility of the Department of Revenue, and he shared with the TEI audience some of the State's initiative, including a tax holiday for individuals who move to economically distressed Kansas.

Alana Barragan-Scott became Missouri's Director of Revenue in 2009. Following law school and a judicial clerkship, she became the department's general counsel. After a nearly 15 year tour as Assistant Attorney General (where, among other things, she worked on tax cases), she returned to the revenue department, first as Deputy Commissioner and then Commissioner. During her remarks to the chapter, she spoke about efforts to improve customer service and about the special challenges that the economic downturn poses for state governments. Director Barragan-Scott also talked briefly about her role on the executive committee of the Multistate Tax Commission. (Interestingly, during the question period Secretary Jordan took a number of questions, including one relating to whether Kansas might withdraw from the Multistate Tax Commission; a similar question was not directed to Director Barragan-Scott.)

Both Ms. Barragan-Scott and Mr. Jordan spoke of the importance of...