Council Opposes State Collection of Income Taxes

City Council was unanimous in its opposition to the possibility that the state could take over the collection and distribution of local taxes at Tuesday night’s meeting.

The discussion at the state level was to collect municipal income tax throughout the state, then redistribute it back to the municipalities. Twinsburg began using the Regional Income Tax Agency (RITA) based in Brecksville five years ago, and Financial Director Karen Howse doesn’t feel comfortable with any changes to it.

“It makes me very nervous,” Howse said.

Mayor Katherine Procop said there are too many unknown factors with switching to a state model.

“We don’t know what the charge would be, we don’t know what the distribution schedule would be,” Procop said. “We feel that being located here in this area, RITA is more aware of our economic climate.”

Procop said that the last time this issue came up, the fee was more expensive than with RITA, and she feels the same would be true again. However, the bigger issue is knowing exactly when distributions are made.

“We know what our twice-monthly distribution schedule is and it’s important for us to have our income coming in on a regular basis,” Procop said.