Council Votes Itself Access to Tax Data

After weeks of debate and discussion, the City Council has passed a measure enabling council members to view confidential sales tax data.

The council on Monday night voted 3 to 2 on the issue, with Councilman Walter K. Bowman and Councilwoman Anna Piercy opposed. They argued that disclosing the information could pose a conflict of interest if council members’ employers might benefit from knowing sales tax data from rival companies.

But Mayor Tom Carroll, Councilwoman Mary Ann Jones and Councilman Tim Keenan said the resolution has a safeguard to prevent conflicts of interests. The measure authorizes the city manager and city attorney to decide if a council member would have a conflict in learning certain sales tax data. In such cases, the council member would be denied the information.

Carroll, Jones and Keenan said the council needs to know the top sales tax producers in the city in order to help them. “We don’t want to make a decision that would cause one of our top producers to leave the city,” Keenan said.

State law limits disclosure of sales tax information. Before, the only officials in Cypress who were authorized to see local sales tax figures were the city manager and city finance director. State law allows disclosure to city officials if a city council passes an enabling resolution.

The Cypress Chamber of Commerce and the Cypress Economic Development Council opposed the measure because of the conflict-of-interest issue.

The resolution passed by the City Council calls for disclosure of data only for the top 10 sales tax producers in the city.