The League of Women Voters, as liberal a group as you’ll find this side of MoveOn.org, loves taxes. The more the merrier. In fact, that’s the message they delivered in a letter to state legislators after Saturday’s “town hall” dog-and-pony shows in Las Vegas and Reno….
Members of the Nevada Legislature,
The energy level in the Grant Sawyer Building was electric today during the January 29, 2011 Town Hall Meeting. The stories are real and embrace the urgency to create a plan for Nevada. The Great Recession continues aggressively. We get it. All the political capital and optimism in the world can not avoid the reality that we can neither cut nor tax our way toward recovery. Citizens of Nevada are asking and wondering how Governor Sandovals agenda and leadership will help us ‘Cowboy Up’ and move us forward again. The idea that we can go ” Back to the Future’ to 2007 spending levels is simply not sound. For example, are utilities, gas, unemployment levels magically reverting to 2007 levels ? Should Public Employees be vilified for their service? Does industry and business benefit from a cripped service system?
The Governor promised Transparency and moving away from the Status Quo, however, the budget is neither transparent nor exiting the status quo. No one wants to pay taxes- the only good tax is one levied on someone else. Yet the reality is that taxes are the cost of services and doing business as a government. Shell games, kicking the can down the proverbial road are games which do not produce solutions expected from elected officials. A no new tax pledge is commendable but avoids the fact that the existing tax structure is fragile and will not sustain nor allow Nevada to be competitive in the 21st Century.We will remain forever looking back to better days if we do not build a platform to support a stronger economy and system of services and K-20 education systems which move us forward.
I am told that a corporate business tax is not Constructional, yet I wonder. I am told that reforming the tax structure takes time- more time than the 120 day session..We do not have the luxury of time or to wait to act. We are in the 21st Century moving toward green energy and hopeful of producing a green economy. This opens a door to tax industry which takes Nevada resources out of the ground and profits produced in Nevada and invests the bounty out of state. Taxing a profitable enterprise in not a negative to industry and business- it is a cost to doing business and a means to maintian a return investment to secure a profitable climate and quality of life in our community.
We need revenue and that would be taxes. Let’s build a fair, non-regressive tax that embraces shared sacrifice — not a tax on one industry or one that cripples small business. Maybe we should find a tax that works and call it the Nevada Recovery Tax for the Future or the Sustainable Operational Tax. Not a gaming, mining or income tax. We need a Nevada Tax that works.
Regards
Sam King, LWVNV
I wonder if “Sam” is “Samantha’s” nickname…of if this is some guy cruising for chicks?
