What if we really could get a do-over?

We know the state needs money to do what states do. We know the money has to come from the private sector. We know that what’s taxed and what’s exempted has economic and social consequences.

So what blend of taxes would be best to gin up commerce while equalizing the burden?

In January, Gov. Haley Barbour commissioned a 30-member committee to meet, hold hearings and use the state’s best and brightest minds to determine what’s helpful and what’s hurtful — to find an ideal balance — and propose changes in Mississippi’s myriad modes of taxation.

‘Due to its demographic — low personal incomes and high need for education and other government services — no state could be boosted more if it could create America’s definitive, ideal mix of taxes.’

Due to its demographic — low personal incomes and high need for education and other government services — no state could be boosted more if it could create America’s definitive, ideal mix of taxes. Nothing the Legislature could do would have greater long-range benefits.

Yet the panel’s draft report, available on the Internet at www.governorbarbour.com, is pretty timid. Nothing earthshaking in its ideas.

Two broad points: As might be expected from a Republican administration, the draft is pro-business, which might make it prudent but harder to sell. And, given the political realities of the day, any Barbour-stamped report might be dead on arrival. Bickering with Barbour is the favorite sport of House leaders. “We’re doing our own study, anyway,” they sniffed.

The details, such as they are, include:

No changes in the taxes paid by casino patrons.

Enacted without a single word of discussion or debate, the 1990 law that has made Mississippi the third-largest casino destination in America now dumps about $330 million per year into the state treasury, 4 percent of all revenue.

No reduction in the state’s 7 percent general sales tax.

Raising more than $2.8 billion per year, the sales tax is the state’s largest single source of money. Sales taxes are also seen as “regressive” because the 28 cents added to a $4 gallon of milk hits a person making $10 per hour twice as hard as it hits  a person making $20 per hour.

Yet the draft would leave the tax as it is and even proposes allowing local governments to add their own sales taxes. This idea has been shot down time and again by lawmakers.

The draft also mentions providing county governments a small share of sales taxes collected countywide to encourage more sharing of services with municipalities. That’s not a bad idea.

A final sales tax suggestion is to remove some exemptions, such as on the sales of newspapers and magazines.

Raising the cigarette tax to 50 cents per pack, half the national median.

Expectations are this would add $76 million to the $55 million the state now collects from smokers. It’s a small slice of the revenue pie. The fight will not be over the increase, but whether the money goes to the General Fund, which Barbour indicates he would prefer, or is pledged to a specific purpose, such as Medicaid.

Personal and corporate income taxes, which raise almost $2 billion per year, would be tweaked.

These are the most complicated taxes, so the draft proposes a variety of changes ranging from increasing the amount of personal income exempt from taxes to perhaps eventually phasing out the corporate tax. Because the corporate tax is a $500 million revenue source, the state would have to make up some- where else. So don’t count on it going away.

Fuel taxes are now per-gallon as opposed to a percentage of the price, and the draft suggests that be reviewed because the state will lose some of the $453 million it now receives yearly if people buy less gas.

Regardless of the pump price, the Mississippi gets 37.2 cents per gallon. The draft recommends considering the North Carolina approach where a variable tax is imposed at the wholesale level. The tax there is now 48.6 cents per gallon.

Many taxes, including the best-hidden insurance premium tax which raises $176 million per year, are not mentioned in the draft or the suggestion is to leave them alone.

There just aren’t a lot of big, bold changes.

Two ideas, however, should definitely be included in the final report. One is a call for more closely examining incentive-type exemptions cities, counties and the state grant to see if the people get their money’s worth. The other is to require all governments to publish the amount of property tax exemptions they grant along with details of the types and amounts of taxes they collect and where the money goes.

Maybe we won’t get a do-over, but the study won’t be a waste if those two ideas become law. The better people understand the dozens of ways we all pay taxes, the more likely we are to care how the money is spent.