News Release
February 1, 2007 - Former Deputy Tax
Commissioner Selected as Newest Hall of Fame Member
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Former Ohio Deputy Tax
Commissioner Carol Bessey was inducted into the Ohio Tax Hall
of Fame here during a ceremony at the 16th annual Ohio Tax
Conference Tuesday, January 30. She was the seventh person
and first woman to receive the honor since the hall was
founded in 2001.
Ohio Tax Commissioner Richard Levin announced her induction
during a ceremony at the conference. More than 900 people
attended the two-day event.
“I’m truly surprised and honored,” Bessey said. She noted
that through the years, she’d had the opportunity to work
with diverse individuals and groups who all had varied
objectives for Ohio tax law. “Even though we certainly did
not all agree on specific goals,” she said, “we knew it was
in all our interests to have as broad an understanding as
possible of all perspectives and issues.”
The best part of her job as deputy tax commissioner, she
said, was getting to know and work with “great people, in and
out of the department, who worked very hard.” The greatest
challenge, she added, was to explain complex tax policies and
advocate specific positions in an understandable, meaningful
way to individuals without a strong taxation
background.
Levin noted that Bessey first came to ODT in the late 1980s
to work as his executive assistant when he was assistant tax
commissioner. She then served as deputy tax commissioner for
tax policy from 1991 through 2003, when she retired from ODT.
During her career in ODT, Levin said she’d been significantly
involved in many major tax issues including the “bright line”
income tax residency legislation, net worth tax reform for
business, electric utility deregulation, telecommunications
industry tax reform, school funding initiatives, Internet and
remote sales taxation, the Streamlined Sales Tax Project and
two major tax studies.
Bessey earlier worked for the Ohio Legislative Service
Commission and served on the staff of the Ohio Senate Ways
and Means Committee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in
communications and a master’s degree in public administration
from The Ohio State University. She is married with two
children, and resides with her family in the Clintonville
section of Columbus.
Selection to the Ohio Tax Hall of Fame is made by the Ohio
Tax Commissioner and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Those in
the Ohio Tax Hall of Fame were selected on the basis of
outstanding contributions to the development, administration
or operation of Ohio’s state tax system.
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(For additional information, contact Gary Gudmundson,
Communications Director, at (614) 644-6903 or Mike McKinney,
Public Information Officer, at 614-466-5461.)