Wednesday, June 21, 2006

The “Uncollected” One Billion

Posted by Craig Westover | 6:24 PM |  

From "Politics in Minesota"
DFL Attorney General and endorsed candidate for governor, Mike Hatch, is fond of talking about a purported “billion in uncollected tax revenue.” PIM did some checking with the Department of Revenue. Here’s the reality check (hat tip on reality check to WCCO’s and KTLK FM’s Pat Kessler). There is no billion dollars in uncollected tax revenue. There is, however, an estimated tax gap of one billion. A tax gap is the difference between the total tax actually collected and the amount that could have been collected if all those required to pay had paid the correct amount of tax. The department maintains that only a faction of the gap could actually be collected.
So how again are we funding that embryonic stem cell research at the University of Minnesota, Mike?