BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BLUE ASH -- More than a few of the hundreds of harried people who battled the traffic outside the Blue Ash post office Tuesday to mail their tax returns looked like they had a beef with the IRS.
Fortunately for them, they had somebody standing outside the post office who might be able to do something about it.
U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, R- Terrace Park, the leading sponsor of IRS reform legislation in the Republican-controlled House, spent part of the lunch hour outside the post office on Cooper Road, greeting taxpayers and asking them if they were satisfied with the IRS.
"That's three out of four who say the IRS was better to deal with this year," Mr. Portman said, after spending a few minutes with an elderly man on his way inside. "I think we've got their attention at the IRS."
Going out to the Blue Ash post office was Mr. Portman's way of gathering evidence on whether the debate in Congress over IRS reform has made the tax collection agency more "user-friendly."
"People thought I was crazy when I started taking on the IRS," Mr. Portman said. "But I thought it was important that this agency be made to work for people, not against them."
The Republican's IRS reform bill passed the House in November. It would create a new oversight board made up of private sector executives and others to monitor the IRS.
The Senate version of the IRS bill, sponsored by Sen. William Roth, R-Delaware, would expand the power of Mr. Portman's board. Under the Senate bill, which is pending, the board would have oversight over collection activities and have limited authority to review taxpayer records.
Tuesday, many of the taxpayers Mr. Portman talked to said they were aware of his IRS reform bill and supported the Idea.
"I haven't had any trouble with them myself, but I support what you're doing," said Dick Chisholm, a retired sales executive from Montgomery.
Mr. Chisholm said the complexity of IRS forms doesn't bother him.
"I look at sitting down and filling them out as a challenge," Mr. Chisholm said.
His biggest complaint with the federal tax system, he said, "is that I'm paying more in taxes now than I did when I was working."
