(Chuck Muth) – Here we go again – and frankly, I’m tired of this, uh…crud.
We expect Democrats to raise our taxes. It’s what they do. It’s who they are.
But we expect better from Republicans – especially since they all campaign as taxpayer champions.
Which lasts until they get to Carson City and start playing footsies with the lobbyists and too often treat their campaign promises like a Bill Clinton wedding vow.
Two tax hike bills are working their way through the legislative sausage grinder – SB451 and AB530 – and they stink like yesterday’s diapers.
SB451 would extend a “temporary” property tax until 2057 — that’s thirty more years — to supposedly fund more police in Las Vegas.
AB530 would keep jacking up your gas taxes every single year — automatically — without asking voters; just by a rubber-stamp vote from the Democrat-loaded Clark County Commission.
And yes, these are tax HIKES no matter what their defenders falsely claim to the contrary.
When a tax increase is passed by voters with a “sunset” clause, the public expects those taxes to decrease once the expiration date arrives.
If the higher tax rate is extended, taxpayers continue to pay more than they would have if the sunset had occurred. That’s a “hike.”
And make no mistake: Allowing the six Democrats of the seven-member Clark County Commission to raise these taxes makes them an absolute certainty.
But legislators who vote for these tax hikes will shift the blame and wash their hands of them Pontius Pilot-style.
They’re doing it by exploiting a loophole in the Gibbons Tax Restraint Law — a law passed specifically by the taxpayers of Nevada – TWICE! – to stop these kinds of sneaky tax shenanigans.
Here’s the raw truth: The Democrats are gonna vote for these tax hikes. That’s baked into the cake. The real question is: Will Republicans have the backbone to stop them?
Because they can. Democrats need a two-thirds super-majority to pass them and they’re one vote short in both the Senate and the Assembly.
So if Republicans stick together, they have the votes to kill these bills stone-cold dead – right now – so they never hit Gov. Lombardo’s desk.
But if just ONE Republican in each house rolls over and relies on the governor’s veto pen to do their dirty work, they’re stabbing taxpayers in the back by cutting them out of the process.
Sadly, on SB451 four Republicans in the Senate (Buck, Rogich, Steinbeck, Stone) have already voted with the Democrats to raise the tax without voter approval.
And on AB530, TWELVE Republicans in the Assembly (Yurek, O’Neill, Koenig, Kasama, Hibbetts, Hardy, Hansen, Gurr, Gray, Edgeworth, DeLong, Cole) told taxpayers to stick it where the sun don’t shine
What the heck?!!
Republicans are supposed to be the party of taxpayers. As the late, great Robert Novak famously put it: “God put the Republican Party on earth to cut taxes. If they don’t do that, they have no useful function.”
You hear that, GOP legislators?
Your one job is to cut taxes — or at least not raise them. If you can’t even manage that, what’s your “useful function” for taxpayers?
SB451 can still be stopped in the Assembly and AB530 can still be stopped in the Senate.
All Republicans have to do is find their “inner Reagan” and do the right thing by unanimously voting to kill these end-runs around us taxpayers.
And make no mistake: Republicans who vote for SB451 or AB530 instantly become potential primary bait.
Sure, you might survive such a political intra-party bloodbath. Then again, you might not.
Just ask FORMER Assemblyman James Oscarson and FORMER Assemblyman Chris Edwards – both of whom got taken out in GOP primaries after voting to raise taxes.
If you vote like a Democrat for tax hikes – including extending “temporary” tax hikes that voters were promised would sunset – how is that any different from actually being a Democrat?
This isn’t about whether cops need funding or roads need fixing.
This is about honesty. This is about trust. This is about keeping your word. This is about letting VOTERS – not six Democrats on the Clark County Commission – decide.
When you tell voters a tax is temporary, you should keep your promise.
When you say you’re against tax hikes, you should vote against tax hikes.
When you say you stand with taxpayers, you don’t hand them a bill they didn’t get to agree to.
Here’s the simple, bottom line:
- Vote “No” on SB451 and AB530 – and you keep faith with the people who sent you to Carson City.
- Vote “Yes” – and you’re risking an expensive political fight for your political life in 2026.
This is gut-check time. This is about whether you’re a true Republican or just another Republican in Name Only (RINO).
You were sent to Carson City to be a firewall for taxpayers, not a matchstick for the tax-hikers.
Stand tall. Vote NO. Or don’t be surprised if you suffer the wrath of taxpayers and GOP voters next year.