Filed under the “Hi, I’m from the government and I checked my brain at the door, department”, a local municipality is sticking Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp with a $1.4 million dollar tangible property tax bill based on what the company says is a clerical error. Their sin? Indicating the incorrect amount for their inventory—basically an accounting mistake. The Hinds County (Mississippi) Board of Stupervisors says that “their hands are tied” because Milwaukee took over a year to appeal the mistake. That’s a 1 million dollar tax typo…but it gets even better.
A 1 Million Dollar Tax Typo is Clerical, not Criminal
The correct amount should have been $75,000. That’s a difference of around $1.325 meeellion dollars. Our question is: do these government officials understand that they might contribute to driving Milwaukee right out of their county? This borders on the asinine. Even if the law says otherwise, you get an exemption provided to correct the error – you don’t wash your hands and hide behind the letter of the law. Milwaukee has 3 franchise locations in the state and brings $100-500 million in revenue. It employs between 250-499 employees in Mississippi. In an economy like this it seems like local government would want to do all it can to facilitate great relations between the company and its local municipalities.
What would you do if you were on the board? In our opinion, you do whatever it takes to not cause a large, jobs-creating company to leave. Hiding behind the law saying “your hands are tied” comes across as just plain lazy to us. Tax credits simply don’t cut it as it could take a decade to credit back the mistake.
