The legislature writes the laws, appropriates the funds and oversees the use of the appropriated money. Many legislatures guard these prerogatives tightly.
One former tax agency commissioner tells the story that when he was new to the job, the chair of the ways and means committee called him over to the capitol. They sat in the capitol office talking about many topics--with the exception of taxes. When the meeting was wrapping up, the chair said, "I really appreciate you coming over; I just wanted to make sure you knew where our state's tax policy was made."
If that new commissioner wanted to have any role at all in forming state tax policy, he would need to prove his usefulness to the legislative partner.
Let us approach this goal strategically.
