Democrat Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas) is trying to make a gigantic hike in the jobs tax more palatable by sweetening the pot for “three-quarters of Nevada’s businesses” by reducing their jobs tax rate. Her scheme is total BS, will kill more jobs, delay the state’s economic recovery and do nothing more than allow government to grow in the middle of a recession while everyone else in the private sector is tightening their collective belts.
Let’s first address Buckley proposed tax “cut.” For businesses with payrolls of $250,000 or less, their jobs tax rate will drop from .63 percent to .50 percent. Now, those kinds figures with decimal points don’t mean much to the average public school graduate who doesn’t know what a decimal point is anyway. So let’s put some real numbers to it.
If your payroll today is $250,000, the penalty you pay to employ your workers at .63 percent comes to $1,575. Under Buckley’s magnanimous and generous tax “cut,” that penalty drops to $1,250….a savings of a whopping $325 a year. That means the Buckley tax “cut” will save three-quarters of Nevada’s businesses, at the most, a whopping…..89 cents per day.
Oh, THANK YOU, Madame Speaker! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Of course, the Buckley tax “cut” isn’t really a tax cut at all because she’s going to hike the jobs tax on the other one-quarter of Nevada’s businesses to make up for it…..and then some.
By some estimates, the Buckley tax “cut” for some businesses will decrease the projected job tax revenue by $16 million over two years – but the tax HIKE she has proposed could cost the remaining businesses anywhere from $202 million to a mind-blowing $788 million.
Yowza! Does the Buckley plan come complete with a big jar of Vaseline?
You know the sad part? Most of the business lobbyists and chamber or commerce types in Carson City right now are, indeed, saying, “Thank you, ma’am, may we have another?”
You see, these people are so relieved that the idea of a corporate income tax or other industry-specific tax hikes are apparently off the table that they will gladly accept this “minor” tax increase with barely a peep….which is exactly what Buckley intended. The Speaker has played these folks like a fine violin. Business lobbyists who love to be loved by the people screwing them have swallowed Buckley’s snake-oil hook, line and sinker.
Would somebody PLEASE ship a truckload of political Viagra to the Legislature pronto?!!
