That Was Quite A Meeting – You Might Want To Keep A Very Close Eye On Your Wallet
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
If you believe that government in all its glory will take care of your every need – The outcome of the Nevada Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee’s Tax Study will be something you’ll be looking forward to having. The game plan, based on the meeting that was held via video conference hook-up, is related to the Senate Concurrent Resolution 37, jointly sponsored by Senator Steven Horsford and Assemblyman John Oceguera.
The key wording of SCR 37, which summarizes the purpose for the study that members of the Interim Finance Committee found the spare cash to pay for after Governor Gibbons vetoed the actual spending authorization, “Whereas, It is vital that policymakers not be unduly constrained by the current distribution of public revenues or the current mixture of public revenue sources in making decisions…”
This actually means that the way we tax now isn’t good enough because we don’t have enough money to spend and spending money on our favorite people and programs is why we are legislators. Nevada just can’t keep going the way things went last legislative session when we didn’t get the automatic increases for us to spend on expanding state government’s bureaucratic fiefdoms. Although we said we cut spending, the increases that we authorized might not survive the year, since the Billion extra we raised in taxes hasn’t been coming in like we’d hoped.
In addition to hiring a consultant to figure out the various ways Nevada could be raising taxes that currently don’t exist in our system, the committee is also working on the demand side of the steam-roller they hope to push through the 2011 Legislature. We’re told that a “Vision” stakeholders group, somewhere around 15 or so hand-picked citizens to provide cover, will be involved in figuring out a strategic plan for improving Nevada’s quality of life. This “Vision” will offer 5, 10 and 20-year time frames for education, health and human services, public safety, economic diversification, job creation, transit and energy use – you know all the things that we can’t exist with unless government spending is making our “Vision” happen.
There will be many more meetings, first to pick the consultant who will be paid with the extra $500,000 or so that the legislators found in the cushions and other places that money turns up being located when the going is tough – then the legislators will make their selections for the “Vision” stakeholders – possibly you too could be considered, if you are recommended…have the time available for participation…can cover your own expenses (or have someone else pay). This piece provides some highlights (mostly for those who might want to bid at becoming the consultant), but it also gives some reference to the overall focus. It will likely be updated as the details from the September 21st meeting are processed.
Keeping an eye on this project has to be a top priority as they go forward with their activities. Although they plan on finishing up the study and the report to go with it by October 1, 2010 – attention must be focused on getting candidates for the 2011 Legislature to offer their commitments before we go to the voting booths to make our selections. The likely response you will hear will be something along the lines of not wanting to give an opinion until the whole project is finished and the details are spelled out. Here on September 21, 2009, we can already tell you the outcome of the proposal – Nevada needs more broad based revenue sources (new types of taxes that we don’t have now to get us more money we don’t want to go without).
If you believe that government in all its glory will take care of your every need – The outcome of the Nevada Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee’s Tax Study will be something you’ll be looking forward to having. The game plan, based on the meeting that was held via video conference hook-up, is related to the Senate Concurrent Resolution 37, jointly sponsored by Senator Steven Horsford and Assemblyman John Oceguera.
The key wording of SCR 37, which summarizes the purpose for the study that members of the Interim Finance Committee found the spare cash to pay for after Governor Gibbons vetoed the actual spending authorization, “Whereas, It is vital that policymakers not be unduly constrained by the current distribution of public revenues or the current mixture of public revenue sources in making decisions…”
This actually means that the way we tax now isn’t good enough because we don’t have enough money to spend and spending money on our favorite people and programs is why we are legislators. Nevada just can’t keep going the way things went last legislative session when we didn’t get the automatic increases for us to spend on expanding state government’s bureaucratic fiefdoms. Although we said we cut spending, the increases that we authorized might not survive the year, since the Billion extra we raised in taxes hasn’t been coming in like we’d hoped.
In addition to hiring a consultant to figure out the various ways Nevada could be raising taxes that currently don’t exist in our system, the committee is also working on the demand side of the steam-roller they hope to push through the 2011 Legislature. We’re told that a “Vision” stakeholders group, somewhere around 15 or so hand-picked citizens to provide cover, will be involved in figuring out a strategic plan for improving Nevada’s quality of life. This “Vision” will offer 5, 10 and 20-year time frames for education, health and human services, public safety, economic diversification, job creation, transit and energy use – you know all the things that we can’t exist with unless government spending is making our “Vision” happen.
There will be many more meetings, first to pick the consultant who will be paid with the extra $500,000 or so that the legislators found in the cushions and other places that money turns up being located when the going is tough – then the legislators will make their selections for the “Vision” stakeholders – possibly you too could be considered, if you are recommended…have the time available for participation…can cover your own expenses (or have someone else pay). This piece provides some highlights (mostly for those who might want to bid at becoming the consultant), but it also gives some reference to the overall focus. It will likely be updated as the details from the September 21st meeting are processed.
Keeping an eye on this project has to be a top priority as they go forward with their activities. Although they plan on finishing up the study and the report to go with it by October 1, 2010 – attention must be focused on getting candidates for the 2011 Legislature to offer their commitments before we go to the voting booths to make our selections. The likely response you will hear will be something along the lines of not wanting to give an opinion until the whole project is finished and the details are spelled out. Here on September 21, 2009, we can already tell you the outcome of the proposal – Nevada needs more broad based revenue sources (new types of taxes that we don’t have now to get us more money we don’t want to go without).
Posted by Doug Busselman at 9/21/2009 4:00 PM 
Categories: Nevada Legislature
Tags: Interim Finance Committee Nevada Tax Study SCR 37
Categories: Nevada Legislature
Tags: Interim Finance Committee Nevada Tax Study SCR 37
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