A Campaign of Ideas – Taxes (What Type)
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
What would an election process be without Taxes being a major topic for consideration? Some would (and have) placed Taxes as the number one priority for attention, Nevada Farm Bureau members participating in a ranking process have identified it as Number 3 on the "Top 10 Critical Areas of Concern".
For the purpose of this discussion I would like to break the subject of Taxes into three areas for consideration, primarily looking at the subject from a Nevada Legislative perspective and directing the focus on those who want your vote for the Nevada Assembly or the Nevada Senate. The 2009 Nevada Legislature, after adopting a state budget that was greater than the budget that had been in place (in other words they increased state spending) went on to increase taxes by nearly $1 Billion. Based on the situation that is in place for the 2011 Nevada Legislature (with a number of the tax increases subject to sunset) the subject of taxes will be a central core issue.
Significant subthemes for the 2011 Nevada Legislative Tax Discussions:
(Each will be covered over the next several blog posts…)
What type of taxes?
Leaders of the 2009 Nevada Legislature’s majority party, especially the Senate Majority Leader, have expressed very specific ideas on what should be the focus for tax discussions, expanding the state’s tax base (as in finding and establishing new tax targets for extraction). Because of this party’s aversion to wanting to make it seem that real people would be required to ante up their money to pay for the services that government provides – the normal source for a bulls-eye gets to be business enterprises. Using the Class-Warfare approach that they specialize in, "Corporations", by their very name and structure, bring out the pitch forks and mob mentality of “tax-em”.
They’re big! They don’t pay their fair share! Some of them aren’t based in Nevada and they take the money of our citizens and greedily stash the profits in out-of-state places! With these rallying cries it’s probably little wonder that we haven’t figured out a way to tap into the untold wealth they hold and should be giving to Nevada’s unquenchable need for more tax revenue.
As has been the case in past legislative sessions, attempts will likely be made to seek the adoption of some type of Corporate tax, assessing either revenue or profits. A key to accomplishing this extraction system will be determining a bureaucratic mechanism which puts in place the person-power to collect, without having to pay for an expansion of the bureaucratic numbers that eat up all the funds collected.
As something of an off-shoot of making Corporations pay, business in general is the place where a number of legislators aim their tax-coveting attention. Over the past several years there have been ideas for taxing gross revenue as well as profits coming as the result of business activities. Again, figuring out how to do the extraction and getting around that problem of the State’s Constitution prohibition against an income tax have been problems. In a number of business structures, such as a sole proprietorship, taxing revenue or profits are forms of an income tax.
While the subject of taxes will be covered in a number of following post, the central theme that needs to be firmly established is that constrained, responsible government spending is the starting point and eventual ending point for any consideration of taxes.
Those who wish to gain your vote in 2010 should be well prepared to identify their point of view on spending as well as their ideas on who should be paying taxes.
What would an election process be without Taxes being a major topic for consideration? Some would (and have) placed Taxes as the number one priority for attention, Nevada Farm Bureau members participating in a ranking process have identified it as Number 3 on the "Top 10 Critical Areas of Concern".
For the purpose of this discussion I would like to break the subject of Taxes into three areas for consideration, primarily looking at the subject from a Nevada Legislative perspective and directing the focus on those who want your vote for the Nevada Assembly or the Nevada Senate. The 2009 Nevada Legislature, after adopting a state budget that was greater than the budget that had been in place (in other words they increased state spending) went on to increase taxes by nearly $1 Billion. Based on the situation that is in place for the 2011 Nevada Legislature (with a number of the tax increases subject to sunset) the subject of taxes will be a central core issue.
Significant subthemes for the 2011 Nevada Legislative Tax Discussions:
(Each will be covered over the next several blog posts…)
- What type of taxes?
- How Much?
- What will the process be for deciding?
What type of taxes?
Leaders of the 2009 Nevada Legislature’s majority party, especially the Senate Majority Leader, have expressed very specific ideas on what should be the focus for tax discussions, expanding the state’s tax base (as in finding and establishing new tax targets for extraction). Because of this party’s aversion to wanting to make it seem that real people would be required to ante up their money to pay for the services that government provides – the normal source for a bulls-eye gets to be business enterprises. Using the Class-Warfare approach that they specialize in, "Corporations", by their very name and structure, bring out the pitch forks and mob mentality of “tax-em”.
They’re big! They don’t pay their fair share! Some of them aren’t based in Nevada and they take the money of our citizens and greedily stash the profits in out-of-state places! With these rallying cries it’s probably little wonder that we haven’t figured out a way to tap into the untold wealth they hold and should be giving to Nevada’s unquenchable need for more tax revenue.
As has been the case in past legislative sessions, attempts will likely be made to seek the adoption of some type of Corporate tax, assessing either revenue or profits. A key to accomplishing this extraction system will be determining a bureaucratic mechanism which puts in place the person-power to collect, without having to pay for an expansion of the bureaucratic numbers that eat up all the funds collected.
As something of an off-shoot of making Corporations pay, business in general is the place where a number of legislators aim their tax-coveting attention. Over the past several years there have been ideas for taxing gross revenue as well as profits coming as the result of business activities. Again, figuring out how to do the extraction and getting around that problem of the State’s Constitution prohibition against an income tax have been problems. In a number of business structures, such as a sole proprietorship, taxing revenue or profits are forms of an income tax.
While the subject of taxes will be covered in a number of following post, the central theme that needs to be firmly established is that constrained, responsible government spending is the starting point and eventual ending point for any consideration of taxes.
Those who wish to gain your vote in 2010 should be well prepared to identify their point of view on spending as well as their ideas on who should be paying taxes.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 8/25/2009 8:41 AM 
Categories: 2010 Elections
Tags: Nevada Taxes State Budget
Categories: 2010 Elections
Tags: Nevada Taxes State Budget
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