Citizen Outreach CEO Dan Burdish, who is permanently detailed to the Carson City Legislature for the duration of the 2011 session, found an interesting tidbit this morning.
“Thirty bills have been introduced that raise taxes/fees,” he reports. “All but two have been introduced by Committees. Sens. Joe Hardy and Mark Manendo are the only two Legislators who have tax/fee increases tied directly to their names.”
Manendo is a Democrat; so no surprise there.
Hardy is the only remaining Republican member of the state Assembly who voted for the Mother of All Tax Hikes in 2003 who is still in office. He also voted for the third largest tax hike in state history in 2009; the room tax. That he’s now a state senator who has NOT come out publicly in support of Gov. Sandoval’s no-new-taxes position and has a bill in to raise taxes isn’t much of a surprise. Disappointing, yes. But not a surprise.
What’s worse, however, is that Sen. Hardy’s new bill would impose regulations, fees and security deposits on people who write grants for a living for non-profit charities such as the American Cancer Society, Feed the Children, the United Way, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, Catholic Charities, the Boys and Girls Club, Shriners Hospitals, Easter Seals, and…well, you get the picture.
Too bad Sen. Hardy doesn’t.
