SB 475 was the bill to re-impose $1.2 billion worth of “temporary” tax hikes that were supposed to “sunset” (expire) 4 years ago.
Only three Republicans voted against the tax hike in the state Senate: Sens. Don Gustavson, Barbara Cegavske and James Settelmeyer.
Gustavson and Cegavske are Tax Pledge signers. Settelmeyer was when he was in the Assembly.
The Republicans who voted for the $1.2 billion tax hike in the Senate were Sen. “Moderate Mike” Roberson and the Dirty Half-Dozen Gang: Sens. Greg Brower, Ben “Blue Dog” Kieckhefer, Joe “The Nanny” Hardy, Pete “Tax My Meat” Goicoechea, Scott Hammond and Mark Hutchison.
Roberson is a Tax Pledge signer who broke his word and spit in our eyes. None of the other six are Pledge signers.
In the Assembly, only six Republicans voted against this $1.2 billion tax hike. They were Assembly members Michele Fiore, Jim Wheeler, Pete Livermore, John Hambrick, Wes Duncan and John Ellison.
Fiore, Wheeler, Livermore and Hambrick are the four Tax Pledge signers in the Assembly.
None of the Republicans in the Assembly who voted in favor of SB475 are Tax Pledge signers.
The nine tax-hiking Republicans were: Minority Leader Pat Hickey, Assistant Minority Leader Cresent Hardy, Tom Grady, Ira Hansen, Randy Kirner, James Oscarson, Paul Anderson, Lynn Stewart and Melissa Woodbury.
Once again, we find that those who sign the Pledge are more likely to keep their word (Roberson excepted), and those who don’t sign the Pledge are more likely to vote to raise taxes.
Conservative donors and volunteers need to start snapping their checkbooks closed and sitting on their hands for any Republican candidates who refuse to sign the Tax Pledge…or stop bitching about Republicans who vote to raise taxes and claim to be limited-government conservatives.
AND AGAIN…
AB413 would put gas tax hikes in Clark County on automatic pilot.
It passed 34-7 in the Assembly, with every Tax Pledge signer voting no.
Every Republican who DID vote for this tax hike was a non-Pledge signer.
Ditto passage in the Senate by a vote of 17-3.
All of the Pledge signers voted no. Pledge-breaker Roberson and the non-Pledge signing Dirty Half-Dozen Gang all voted for the tax hike.
See the pattern?