The Class Warfare Of Nevada’s Tax Champions
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
The 2009 Nevada Legislature will be remembered probably more for the record-setting veto flurry than for being a session where lawmakers increased state spending and passed a record-setting amount of taxes. Those who would like your vote in the next election (whether for re-election to the office they have – or as in the case of Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, for Governor) would rather you kept focused on something other than what they have been up to during the 75th Legislative Session.
Spotlighting the wide use of the Veto stamp, keeps the attention where champions of increased spending and taxes want you to concentrate – on a Governor who they feel that they have successfully marginalized. Those participating in this process aren’t just the ones who have been pushing the green buttons for more state spending and the hikes necessary in taxes to cover those costs. Media pundits, University of Nevada officials, University paid economists, Nevada Teacher Union representatives – actually everyone who is on the getting side of the ledger, withdrawing from the state checkbook have been part of the “We just gotta get more tax revenue” choir.
I’ve said before and continue to push the theme that the real attention needs to be directed at the spending work of the Nevada Legislature. Taxes are the result of what has to be done to cover the costs involved with the way state lawmakers spend.
Attempts to portray the problem as not having enough of a broad-based tax program serve the purpose well for those who would rather just assume that the spending is something that should be a given…necessary, perhaps even very minimal (regardless of the levels of increases that have transpired over the past few sessions). When times were good and tax dollars were over-flowing from state coffers we heard that the state’s taxation system was not broad-based enough. This was really code for we need more to spend. Legislators have blown through the bonanza they acquired in 2003 with the largest tax increase revenue (before the 2009 Legislative session) and they haven’t let the biggest downturn in the economy since the Great Depression stop them from increasing the amount of spending they plan to do for the coming biennium.
Those who depend on getting from the state general fund point fingers at who, in their minds, aren’t paying “their fair share”, advocating for a corporate profits tax as well as cashing in from the current high levels of gold prices that surely portends to indicate that miners should be paying more.
Where once stick-up bandits wore mask to take what wasn’t theirs, today’s champions for governmental wealth redistribution brazenly advocate that the bureaucrats, school teachers, university professors and others at the state trough are more deserving of the private sector’s resources than those who have worked hard, invested and built those resources.
It shouldn’t surprise most to figure out why the majority of the Nevada Legislature believes that those getting tax dollars are more important than those who should believe themselves to be obligated to give more tax dollars…check into the resumes of those pushing the green buttons for increased spending and taxes. Given that these “citizen” legislators appear to have more in common with those getting than paying out – it might explain the nature their attitudes.
Changing the focus from spend and tax to more responsible government can only be accomplished at the voting booth and the organizational work which leads up to selecting those who will represent us in 2011.
The 2009 Nevada Legislature will be remembered probably more for the record-setting veto flurry than for being a session where lawmakers increased state spending and passed a record-setting amount of taxes. Those who would like your vote in the next election (whether for re-election to the office they have – or as in the case of Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, for Governor) would rather you kept focused on something other than what they have been up to during the 75th Legislative Session.
Spotlighting the wide use of the Veto stamp, keeps the attention where champions of increased spending and taxes want you to concentrate – on a Governor who they feel that they have successfully marginalized. Those participating in this process aren’t just the ones who have been pushing the green buttons for more state spending and the hikes necessary in taxes to cover those costs. Media pundits, University of Nevada officials, University paid economists, Nevada Teacher Union representatives – actually everyone who is on the getting side of the ledger, withdrawing from the state checkbook have been part of the “We just gotta get more tax revenue” choir.
I’ve said before and continue to push the theme that the real attention needs to be directed at the spending work of the Nevada Legislature. Taxes are the result of what has to be done to cover the costs involved with the way state lawmakers spend.
Attempts to portray the problem as not having enough of a broad-based tax program serve the purpose well for those who would rather just assume that the spending is something that should be a given…necessary, perhaps even very minimal (regardless of the levels of increases that have transpired over the past few sessions). When times were good and tax dollars were over-flowing from state coffers we heard that the state’s taxation system was not broad-based enough. This was really code for we need more to spend. Legislators have blown through the bonanza they acquired in 2003 with the largest tax increase revenue (before the 2009 Legislative session) and they haven’t let the biggest downturn in the economy since the Great Depression stop them from increasing the amount of spending they plan to do for the coming biennium.
Those who depend on getting from the state general fund point fingers at who, in their minds, aren’t paying “their fair share”, advocating for a corporate profits tax as well as cashing in from the current high levels of gold prices that surely portends to indicate that miners should be paying more.
Where once stick-up bandits wore mask to take what wasn’t theirs, today’s champions for governmental wealth redistribution brazenly advocate that the bureaucrats, school teachers, university professors and others at the state trough are more deserving of the private sector’s resources than those who have worked hard, invested and built those resources.
It shouldn’t surprise most to figure out why the majority of the Nevada Legislature believes that those getting tax dollars are more important than those who should believe themselves to be obligated to give more tax dollars…check into the resumes of those pushing the green buttons for increased spending and taxes. Given that these “citizen” legislators appear to have more in common with those getting than paying out – it might explain the nature their attitudes.
Changing the focus from spend and tax to more responsible government can only be accomplished at the voting booth and the organizational work which leads up to selecting those who will represent us in 2011.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 5/31/2009 2:59 AM 
Categories: Nevada Legislature
Tags: Nevada State Spending Taxes
Categories: Nevada Legislature
Tags: Nevada State Spending Taxes
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