In formally announcing the creation of the James Commission to look into ways to make government more efficient and less expensive, Gov. Jim Gibbons said yesterday, “My first goal is if we can get government so efficient that it does not take as much revenue to run government, we are going to look at cutting taxes.”
Vunderbar! However, maybe we should cut taxes FIRST and THEN find ways to force government to operate with the lower revenue. As my friend Grover Norquist at Americans for Tax Reform would say, “starve the beast.” Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Meanwhile, on Planet Taxus…
While Gov. Jim Gibbons and Bruce James were meeting in Carson City yesterday to launch a new private commission to reduce government, representatives of the gaming industry and the teachers union were meeting to figure out a mutually agreeable scheme to raise taxes for more money for higher teacher salaries. After all, just look at the bang-up job our public schools are doing!
The proposal under discussion would raise the hotel room tax rate by some 3 percentage points, jacking up the room tax to around 12 to 16 percent in various parts of the state. This tax hike is seen as politically painless since it will be born primarily by tourists.
Make no mistake, this compromise proposal should be DOA - Dead On Arrival. Regardless of whose taxes are being increased, it’s still a tax increase. And it would have to be approved by the Legislature. Which means even if passed it would be vetoed by Gov. Gibbons who has clearly and steadfastly told everybody who will listen and understands plain English: “NO NEW TAXES.”
This proposal itself is just plain foolish. You simply cannot keep raising the cost for visitors to come to Nevada endlessly. Sooner or later visitors will find less expensive places to go. We will take our tourism industry to death…literally. And a tax hike on people who don’t live here is absolutely “taxation without representation.” And that…dare I say it…un-American.
I’m against any and all tax hikes, but if the gaming industry is going to keep playing this “don’t tax me, tax the guy behind the tree” game I might just have to reconsider. The problem in Nevada isn’t that taxes aren’t already high enough…
It’s the spending. Bring on the James Commission!
Posted on May 8th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
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