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CARSON CITY — A joint legislative committee has begun hearing the first major plan to raise taxes in order to fund the state budget for the next two years.
"The time has arrived," Assembly Taxation Chairwoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, said in kicking off the hearing this afternoon. "It's time to talk about revenue."
The committee will consider a proposal to increase the state tax on business payrolls. Currently, the Modified Business Tax of 0.63 percent on non-financial businesses is projected to bring in $500 million over the next biennium.
The proposal would reduce the tax to 0.5 percent on payrolls up to $250,000 annually and increase it to an unspecified higher amount above that level. A worksheet shows potential rates of 1 percent, 1.25 percent, 1.5 percent, 1.75 percent and 2 percent, with increases in state revenue ranging from $203 million to $789 million.
According to legislative fiscal analysts, 74 percent of Nevada businesses have total payrolls under the $250,000 threshold.
Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.
MASSIVE
INCREASE IN
TAXES!!
INCLUDING
Higher Sales Taxes, New Service Tax, Huge Increase to Modified Business Tax
OUR LEADERS WILL BE `COURAGEOUS’, `BOLD, & `PROGRESSIVE’ AND NEVADA TAXPAYERS WELCOME THESE NECESSARY INCREASES WITH OPEN ARMS.
I oppose big government and the high taxes necessary to fund it. No one should be surprised that after the crooked politicians vote for all the government they can think of, that the government finds itself short of the money needed to pay for it all. The Democrats must think we're all ATMs whose buttons they can push anytime they need a quick, extra few hundred million.
K-12 spending (37.1%) could have been reduced to less than $2M per year by abolishing every public school except one per district. Taxpayer support for NSHE (13.7%) could have reduced to $0.00 by eliminating all University activities except practical instruction in Agriculture, Mining, and Engineering.
HHS (32.6%) is a cesspool of waste. It's only constitutional duties are management of the state institutions for the mentally ill and disabled. The detailed budget is still opaque, but it counts ~4,000 in-patients, and budgets ~$130M (less than 20% of HHS's overall budget). The prison budget ($285M per year) is perhaps most opaque of all. How many inmates are victimless criminals? Release them and CLOSE most of the prisons. How many guards are women? Fire them. I would not want to throw the helpless out into the desert, or parole violent felons, but I think that we could save a bundle by attacking the waste within these legitimate functions. I conservatively estimate at least HALF.
Many folks are a lot more familiar with PERS than I. I think we should abolish the benefit. It's overly generous, especially for employees who perform now (or did before retirement) NEGATIVE work. Offer buyouts if need be. The rest of the budget is either small fry or unconstitutional bureaucracies deserving abolition.
At a glance, my freedom budget works out to less than $250M per year. More than my oft-cited $100M figure, but not bad for an hour's work.
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