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NEVADA VIEWS
The tax man cometh ... and with a vengeance
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SPECIAL TO THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Let's say you have a really bad headache. And then along comes somebody who says what you really need to relieve the pain is a bonk on the head with a hammer. Absurd, right?
OK, consider Nevada's current economy and unemployment problem. Now consider that there are at least five active efforts to increase taxes on Nevada businesses percolating. Absurd, right? Right. But that ain't stoppin' 'em.
Legislative Democrats last year wanted to take the 2009 "temporary" tax hikes -- currently valued at $620 million -- and make them permanent. These tax hikes include an increase in the payroll tax and a doubling of the penalty/fee every business must pay for the "privilege" of operating in Nevada.
Enough GOP opposition forced the Democrats to accept "only" a two-year extension of those "temporary" tax hikes. Like the bogeyman in a bad horror flick, however, efforts to make those "temporary" tax hikes permanent will be back next year.
In addition, Democrats also trotted out last session a secretly connived, 11th-hour scheme to slam Nevada's business community with a new $1.2 billion corporate income/gross receipts/margins tax ... which they also plan to bring back again next year.
In the meantime, the anti-business organized labor movement -- especially the AFL-CIO and teacher unions -- isn't waiting for legislative Democrats.
The unionistas recognize that a solid contingent of conservative Republicans in the state Senate isn't about to give Democrats the two-thirds vote they'd need to pass a new business tax. So they're preparing to gather enough signatures to put a new corporate tax measure on the ballot -- rolling the dice that getting 50 percent plus 1 in the electorate will be easier than getting two-thirds in the Legislature.
Which, of course, is the reason we need a new ballot initiative to require future tax-hike ballot initiatives to obtain the same two-thirds super-majority vote for approval as is required for tax hikes proposed in the Legislature.
But that's another issue for another day.
Nevertheless, it's not just the left looking to raise taxes via the ballot. Citizen-activist Kermitt Waters is also mulling a tax initiative which would sock the mining industry, as is conservative businessman Monte Miller. And both may be eying similar targeting of gaming.
It's M.A.D. -- Mutual Assured Destruction. Instead of mining, gaming and small businesses combining forces and fighting to reduce spending, the end result could be that everybody's ox gets gored.
Winner? Government and anti-business liberals.
Of course, the fiscally responsible thing is to just say "no" to all tax hike proposals. To that end, every business owner in Nevada should tell every candidate asking for donations this year that if the candidate doesn't sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, the business owner ain't signing the donation check.
So let it be written; so let it be done.
Chuck Muth, a conservative political activist, is president of Citizen Outreach, founder of CampaignDoctor.com and blogs at MuthsTruths.com He may be reached at chuck@chuckmuth.com. He writes from Las Vegas.
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I propose a tax on news papers..maybe 20 cents each....that would mean the RJ would have to pay..what? Do they still print papers?
I again float my compromise; raise the gaming tax rate to the highest percentage that a gaming company is paying elsewhere. Obviously Adelson and Wynn have no issue with paying 30% or whatever it is in Macau, so they should have no issue with paying it here. For those that keep it in Nevada, keep them at 6.75%. The gaming companies have no leg to stand on to object, as they are already VOLUNTARILY paying that much elsewhere...
It's lucicrous and arrogant for Muth to think that he's not only smarter than a majority of today's citizens, but he's smarter than a majority of future citizens. Muth's proposal is just that. It would take a 50% plus one to say that that's not a sufficient number to make policy in the future. Tax-wise, we're one of the most "business friendly" states in the west, but our economy is in one of the worst. I've been here long enough to have a blue license plate, but if I was asked if a family should move to Nevada, I'd say no. Nevada is hostile to families. Does Chuch Muth want the credit for that?
The last thing we need is more taxes. Instead of the unions running the jobs over-seas why don't we just run the unions out of the country.
The last thing we need is a gross receipts or corporate income tax. No way. The Democrats will chase away so many new businesses it will be terrible. Why expand to Nevada when the businesses will go elsewhere. Washington State has a gross receipts tax which is absolutely unfair. You run a business and lose money but you still have to pay a gross receipts tax. That is insane. The Democrats tried this little stunt in the middle of the night. Fortunately it was defeated. What we need to do is increase the mining taxes.
What all the Sheeple don't realize is that any tax hikes on business will be passed on to them in the increased price of the product.
There's no such thing as a temporary tax. Once they're in the books good luck getting them out.