Some members of Nevada’s gaming community struck a last-minute deal with the state’s teachers union yesterday whereby the union agreed not to turn in the signatures it says it had collected to put a tax hike on the gaming industry on the ballot this November. Instead, said gamers have agreed to a scheme whereby local county commissions will be urged to place an “advisory question” on the ballot this fall in an effort to increase the room tax, thereby royally screwing our state’s tourists who won’t get a chance to vote on it. In other words, taxation without representation.
And for what? To pay teachers more money. Teachers who have cranked out such stellar results as 90 percent of high school students in Clark County failing a basic Algebra test. Yeah, baby!
Now that the deal is finalized, we’re left wondering EXACTLY where the governor is on it. There is no doubt that this new proposal is an effort to raise taxes. And even if the advisory questions pass in all 17 counties, it would still require a vote by the Legislature and signature by the governor to take effect.
Some advisers close to the governor tell me he won’t sign onto the deal. But the governor’s press secretary indicated just two weeks ago that the governor would be OK with it as long as the people got to vote on it. However, signing it would be a major violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which reads, once again and in its entirety, as follows:
“I, Jim Gibbons, pledge to the taxpayers of Nevada, and all the people of this State, that I will oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes.”
There is no “vote of the people” loophole in the Pledge no matter how hard some people try to find one. It doesn’t say the governor will “oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes…unless the gaming industry and the teachers union agree to get the various country commissions to put an advisory question on the ballot and the people vote for it.” It says simply that he will “oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes.” Period.
So will he…or won’t he? Inquiring taxpayer minds wanna know.
UH-OH: THIS JUST IN…
As I was about to go to press, Jon Ralston “Flashed” the text of an interview Gov. Gibbons just did with Gary Waddell of KLAS-TV in Las Vegas. When asked about the deal the gamers and the teachers union have put together with an “advisory question” being placed on the ballot by county commissioners this fall, the governor’s response included this troubling sentence:
“If this is something that the voters of Nevada want to approve and send it to the legislature, so be it.”
Now…read my lips:
NEITHER THE VOTERS NOR THE TAXPAYERS NOR NEVADA’S TOURISTS HAVE HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS DEAL!
This is a scheme cooked up by a greedy union trying to get more money for its members and an industry trying to keep its own goose from being cooked by trying to cook someone else’s goose. Taxpayers weren’t part of the negotiations. Voters weren’t part of the negotiations. Tourists weren’t part of the negotiations. There is NO PUBLIC component involved in this tax hike scheme. None. Zilch. Nada. This is an effort to raise taxes by two special interests, not “the people.”
So, Gov. Gibbons, why can’t you just…say…no?
Posted on May 20th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
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