As Jon Ralston noted in the Las Vegas Sun on Friday, Hawaii and Nevada are primarily tourist-based economies. And both of their legislatures this year passed room tax hikes on their states’ tourists.
The difference is, Hawaii’s Republican governor is expected to veto her state’s tax hike on her state’s economic life-blood while Nevada’s Republican governor actually proposed a tax hike on Nevada’s economic life-blood in his budget and then refused to veto it once it was passed by the Legislature.
Ralston also included this priceless quote from by Jeanne LeBlanc, the Hartford Courant’s travel blogger:
“The economic slump is really slamming states that rely on tourism for tax revenue, and the temptation is to slam tourists back. But the wisdom of raising taxes on a dwindling tax base is questionable at best. Tourists have an option that residents don’t – they can stay away.”
What she said.
