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Opinion
Dec. 13, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Surprise! Gamers try to block tax proposal

They file suit to keep teachers union plan off 2008 ballot

Three centuries ago, warfare had a certain formality. The defenders would withdraw within their walled city. The attacking army would surround the fortress and begin digging diagonal trenches, providing shelter from the defenders as they edged their own siege guns close enough to hammer down the walls.

After the shedding of enough blood to satisfy the requirements of honor, a general massacre could often be avoided through the negotiation of acceptable terms of surrender.

Raids would occasionally be launched from inside the walls, in attempts to delay the proceedings. On occasion, defenders could actually earn a higher bounty by hauling back the attackers' shovels than for killing the enemy. But unless one side ran out of supplies and starved, or a relieving force marched to the rescue, you could pretty much check your calendar and set the date.

Today's campaigns may not be as deadly, but a similar, predictable formality also marks the current battle over raising Nevada's gaming tax.

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    • The teachers union wants more money. Ergo, the teachers want taxes raised on the fattest cow in sight -- Nevada's big casinos. They've filed an initiative petition that would hike the gambling tax on casinos grossing more than $1 million per month by 3 percentage points -- enough to raise at least $250 million per year. At which point, the resulting additional loot would go to ... them.

    The teachers will begin passing their petition in the spring. Voters would have to approve the tax hike in 2008 and again in 2010. Because the teachers union membership alone is adequate to supply about half the 58,000 needed signatures, and because polls show voters would handily approve the tax hike, the announcement of the campaign had the same impact as the first siege gun slamming its first heavy ball against the defenders' walls.

    Would the casino barons just button up and listen to the shelling till November, at which point their calendars tell them their walls will collapse?

    Hardly. The first counterattack was launched Monday, as the Nevada Resort Association filed a lawsuit in Carson City District Court, arguing the teachers union's description of its initiative is "misleading, false, and fails to inform voters of all its material consequences."

    The complaint argues that the teachers' plan goes beyond the tax increase when it also proposes a minimum state spending commitment for public schooling. Because that's a separate proposal, it's required by law to form a separate ballot question, the gamers argue.

    The two sides are now maneuvering into a formal contest where logic -- and even the letter of the law -- may end up having less importance than who can exert more influence over Nevada's woefully politicized Supreme Court.

    Because the casinos know they're likely to lose at the polls, their goal is to keep this thing off the ballot at any cost. And should they fail in that effort, don't be surprised if the casinos file a competing initiative petition of their own, in hopes of splitting the opposition.

    (Weirdly enough, at that point, a competing initiative proposed by local attorney Kermitt Waters -- which would raise the gaming tax to a whopping 20.2 percent -- could even help the gamers by further splintering the vote.)

    They've even telegraphed the likely outlines of such a competing proposal. Indicating a willingness to compromise, leading industry figures repeatedly agree the public schools need more money -- they merely demur that they don't see why gamers should be "singled out."

    Translation: "We'll pay a little more tax, as long as you whack the banks and the miners even more."

    The better argument is that we don't need to raise taxes every other year; that this state has long prospered based on its low-tax, laissez-faire approach.

    But that argument no longer seems to find any place, in the formal minuet on which these two powerful forces now find themselves embarked.

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    Jeremiah wrote on December 14, 2007 06:52 AM: Tank,

    You might want to check your own posts before you go pointing out the mistakes in those of others. Honestly, do you really come to message boards to spell check?


    tank wrote on December 13, 2007 07:24 PM: hey teach, your grammer and spelling is a little off. you should be more careful,being a teacher and all.


    teacher wrote on December 13, 2007 06:48 PM: for one it is not a teachers union it is an association which is in bed with the school district. Check our last raise ha we should be in a real union with metro now thats a raise. Quit taxing your only cash cow. Yucca Mt. is a gold mine for southern Nevada, but it will end up like our raises will get nothing.


    tim wrote on December 13, 2007 05:52 PM: the resort industry can afford a slight increase in the taxes they pay, it has not been raised in 10, 20 yrs. but to give it to the teachers union would be foolish, it should go into the general fund.to say it would hurt the industry is wishful thinking, our taxes get raised every two yrs so why should they skate every time? its time for an increase and they should spend their energy debating a reasonable number.


    John F wrote on December 13, 2007 04:19 PM: Grumpy,

    I'm with Steve Forbes on this one. I think we ought to eliminate all taxes except a flat rate tax on income and treat all forms of income equally. That way everyone pays in equal measure.

    I think people will then realize just how much taxation costs them and they may not be so willing to see their money spent for some of the things it's being wasted on these days. Rich people should pay more than I do, but they shouldn't pay a higher rate; that's just not fair. If you make ten times what I do you should pay ten times as much in taxes, not twenty or thirty. Progressive taxes (not to mention the loopholes that allow people to escape them) are for the birds.

    Further, I believe you are correct when you say that nobody ever taxed their way to prosperity. Taxes are a necessary evil, but they become a greater evil when the government tries to use the tax code to promote or discourage certain types of behavior. The market has always been about the best way to decide where money needs to go. There are a few things government can do better than a free market (national defense and roads, for instance), but deciding how people invest their own capital isn't one of them.


    grumpy wrote on December 13, 2007 03:59 PM: John F,
    I think you might be onto something. While i have never been one to believe that a society can tax itself into prosperity, you make a very good point. Perhaps it is time for NV to consider a personal state income tax with absolutely no minimums considered. Everyone should have a financial stake in state affairs. Extending this, we should change the federal income tax code so that everyone pays something. After all that is the fairest way to go. We citizens are protected equally by our Armed Forces. Every single taxpayer should pay an equal amount to fund the Pentagon. Agencies that can't justify equal taxation probably should not be agencies funded at the federal level.

    To mitigate the effect of a broad-based (state) income tax, NV should reduce other taxes. If this ultimately boils down to another tax cut for the rich as the class-warfare crowd is sure to scream so be it--how can tax cuts be anything else when only the rich are soaked?


    Lawrence Hyde wrote on December 13, 2007 01:20 PM: There is not enough money in this universe to satisfy the education hierarchy. The sad part about it, is that it is not for the teachers or the children, it is for those who want to build kingdoms and be very important. The state needs to come up with an honest auditor that can delve into the very belly of the beast and root out all the pork.


    Tami wrote on December 13, 2007 10:11 AM: I just cannot believe that these individuals want to single out Gaming.. Gaming is probably the biggest employer in NV and they want to shut them down? Gaming is the reason they have jobs at the school district. No one should have a free ride - no property tax.. my gosh, you already have no state tax.. I'd like to know what the other companies in NV pay in taxes.. Gaming is a dying animal and these individuals want to kill it off completely.. How intellegent is that? Tami


    Jeremiah wrote on December 13, 2007 08:34 AM: It seems like either way the casinos are going to be targeted. I just don't see the wisdom of taxing one industry and using that revenue just to raise my salary. Sure I'd like to be paid more. Wouldn't anyone? But to ask just the casinos to foot that bill is unfair. Besides, we need more important things than just higher salaries. However, until the districts statewide are forced to streamline and operate more efficiently I can't see asking for more money.

    Thanks, Thomas. Don't forget that we are real people who honestly feel that we are doing good for our community. At least that's how I feel. I care about my students and enjoy helping them learn. I don't see how that makes me a bad person or worthy of dismissal.


    David Tracy wrote on December 13, 2007 07:25 AM: "Gamers," the term used in this op-ed piece's headline, is almost always used to describe video game enthusiasts--not super-powerful corporations with licenses to steal--a curious choice of words followed by four paragraphs of procedures for attacking a fort 300 years ago that includes something about the value of shovels.

    Anyway, every casino corporation takes a huge percentage of it's income from compulsive gamblers with impulse control disorders, who gamble away their paychecks soon after receiving them. Let's figure out how much the casinos make on peoples' psychiatric disorders and then tax them the same percentage.


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