Nevada Legislators Working Overtime To Raise Taxes
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
Around 10 p.m. on May 19th the closed doors, behind which the Nevada Legislature determines the fate of how much Nevada taxpayers will get to pay, were opened and a “hearing” took place involving the Nevada Senate, convened as a “committee of the whole”. S.B. 429 is the complete version of the just-over $781 million tax package that the select number of legislators decided would be their offering to fill the shortfall for meeting the increased spending plans that they had earlier agreed to (also behind the closed doors).
The bill’s proposed extra extractions of money from the private sector to pay for the increased state general fund spending include:
The major portion of this second tax hike of the 2009 Legislative Session involves a fairly slick political scheme to reduce the employee payroll taxes from the current level of 0.63 percent to 0.50 for the first $250,000 of employee payroll taxes paid. Payroll amounts above the “Obama line” ($250,000 appears to be a magic number first identified by our President as the demarcation of who deserve extra taxing) will be doubled to 1.17 percent.
The legislators, who wish to appear to be fiscally responsive to the challenges faced by taxpayers in a tanking economy, have been quick to point out that this “tax cut” on the first $250,000 will cover 74 percent of those businesses paying the tax to receive a reduction of the 0.13 percent per payroll dollar.
Reality isn’t nearly as important as your ability to spin the message to confuse the public to your point of view. In this version of our political leaders’ truth “cuts” aren’t required to translate to less than before – a lessening of the increase that somebody thought they wanted to spend is good enough. Such an example of this can be found it the legislators’ attempt to suggest the “cuts” that they made in the state budget (which will be higher in the coming next two budget years than the level of spending for the past two budget years).
Citizens of Nevada need to continue to make the effort to get through the barriers which prevent the real world from permeating the Legislative Building in Carson City. When those you’ve elected care as much about you as they do for the persons cashing checks that are funded from the state’s general fund, the over-spending won’t be as much of a reason for the late night work to raise taxes.
Around 10 p.m. on May 19th the closed doors, behind which the Nevada Legislature determines the fate of how much Nevada taxpayers will get to pay, were opened and a “hearing” took place involving the Nevada Senate, convened as a “committee of the whole”. S.B. 429 is the complete version of the just-over $781 million tax package that the select number of legislators decided would be their offering to fill the shortfall for meeting the increased spending plans that they had earlier agreed to (also behind the closed doors).
The bill’s proposed extra extractions of money from the private sector to pay for the increased state general fund spending include:
- $345.7 Million in employee payroll tax increases
- $280.5 Million in sales tax increases
- $ 94.2 Million in fee increases by changing the depreciation schedule used for vehicle registration
- $ 60.8 Million in doubling the business license fees
The major portion of this second tax hike of the 2009 Legislative Session involves a fairly slick political scheme to reduce the employee payroll taxes from the current level of 0.63 percent to 0.50 for the first $250,000 of employee payroll taxes paid. Payroll amounts above the “Obama line” ($250,000 appears to be a magic number first identified by our President as the demarcation of who deserve extra taxing) will be doubled to 1.17 percent.
The legislators, who wish to appear to be fiscally responsive to the challenges faced by taxpayers in a tanking economy, have been quick to point out that this “tax cut” on the first $250,000 will cover 74 percent of those businesses paying the tax to receive a reduction of the 0.13 percent per payroll dollar.
Reality isn’t nearly as important as your ability to spin the message to confuse the public to your point of view. In this version of our political leaders’ truth “cuts” aren’t required to translate to less than before – a lessening of the increase that somebody thought they wanted to spend is good enough. Such an example of this can be found it the legislators’ attempt to suggest the “cuts” that they made in the state budget (which will be higher in the coming next two budget years than the level of spending for the past two budget years).
Citizens of Nevada need to continue to make the effort to get through the barriers which prevent the real world from permeating the Legislative Building in Carson City. When those you’ve elected care as much about you as they do for the persons cashing checks that are funded from the state’s general fund, the over-spending won’t be as much of a reason for the late night work to raise taxes.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 5/20/2009 12:34 PM 
Categories: Nevada Legislature
Tags: State Spendin Nevada Taxes
Categories: Nevada Legislature
Tags: State Spendin Nevada Taxes
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