Pick Your Statistic And Let’s Get To The Taxing
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
When the 2009 Nevada Legislature (and primarily the Senate Majority Leader) decided that we needed another tax study to justify and increase in taxes , building the case under the warm and fuzzy concept of government being the source for “Quality of Life” – there was little doubt that the process would yield an outcome that discovered Nevadans aren’t taxed enough.
The consultant who wrote the draft report that the Nevada Vision Stakeholders Group will be taking action on, May 14th, authored a section in the report that Nevadan’s aren’t taxed enough. Now if the majority of the Stakeholders Group (who are mostly made up of representatives who cash government checks) decide to go along with the proposed language – the mission of the study will have been successful in “discovering” that Nevada lawmakers need to raise taxes. Those who have never met a tax increase they didn’t like are all a twitter and excited at the prospect that the case has been made – let the taxing be increased!
In the section of the “Vision” report that is labeled “Efficient, Effective, Inclusive and Accountable Government” the entire purpose is to justify how there just isn’t enough taxes. What the title for the section has to do with the ranting about tax increases is somewhat curious, but then there are all kind of examples where the report doesn’t connect up with the reality of what is being said.
The statement is offered in the opening refrain of this section about there not being enough taxing going on – “Only South Dakota, Deleware and Texas collect fewer state and local taxes and fees measured as a share of gross state product.” An interesting selection of data to make the case…
Throughout the process the Stakeholders have a pile of Brookings Institute reports and documents to substantiate a variety of strategies. For some reason the Moody consultant, preparing the report didn’t include the joint tax report by the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution that shows on a per capita basis, Nevada ranks 22nd in the nation for state and local taxes.
Perhaps using that statistical data might not result in the desired outcome of making the case that Nevadans aren’t taxed enough?
On the other hand, before the paragraph ends, the switch is made to consider things on a per-capita basis, “Direct expenditures by state government are the lowest in the nation on a per-capita basis.” Not mentioned are the details on what happens when local government spending is factored in to this deploring situation…how dare we not rank higher in government spending!
In the next paragraph, buried in the middle, is the point “Nevada’s local governments account for a larger share of overall state and local spending than they do in any other state.”
Given the intentions of those who want higher taxes, paid by more entities (especially those who can be portrayed as “not paying their fair share”) the results of the study could have easily saved the funds spent to reach the fore-determined conclusion that was made by the majority party in the Nevada Legislature over a year ago…I guess that sort of shoots some more holes in the idea that our government is “efficient, effective, inclusive and accountable”.
When the 2009 Nevada Legislature (and primarily the Senate Majority Leader) decided that we needed another tax study to justify and increase in taxes , building the case under the warm and fuzzy concept of government being the source for “Quality of Life” – there was little doubt that the process would yield an outcome that discovered Nevadans aren’t taxed enough.
The consultant who wrote the draft report that the Nevada Vision Stakeholders Group will be taking action on, May 14th, authored a section in the report that Nevadan’s aren’t taxed enough. Now if the majority of the Stakeholders Group (who are mostly made up of representatives who cash government checks) decide to go along with the proposed language – the mission of the study will have been successful in “discovering” that Nevada lawmakers need to raise taxes. Those who have never met a tax increase they didn’t like are all a twitter and excited at the prospect that the case has been made – let the taxing be increased!
In the section of the “Vision” report that is labeled “Efficient, Effective, Inclusive and Accountable Government” the entire purpose is to justify how there just isn’t enough taxes. What the title for the section has to do with the ranting about tax increases is somewhat curious, but then there are all kind of examples where the report doesn’t connect up with the reality of what is being said.
The statement is offered in the opening refrain of this section about there not being enough taxing going on – “Only South Dakota, Deleware and Texas collect fewer state and local taxes and fees measured as a share of gross state product.” An interesting selection of data to make the case…
Throughout the process the Stakeholders have a pile of Brookings Institute reports and documents to substantiate a variety of strategies. For some reason the Moody consultant, preparing the report didn’t include the joint tax report by the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution that shows on a per capita basis, Nevada ranks 22nd in the nation for state and local taxes.
Perhaps using that statistical data might not result in the desired outcome of making the case that Nevadans aren’t taxed enough?
On the other hand, before the paragraph ends, the switch is made to consider things on a per-capita basis, “Direct expenditures by state government are the lowest in the nation on a per-capita basis.” Not mentioned are the details on what happens when local government spending is factored in to this deploring situation…how dare we not rank higher in government spending!
In the next paragraph, buried in the middle, is the point “Nevada’s local governments account for a larger share of overall state and local spending than they do in any other state.”
Given the intentions of those who want higher taxes, paid by more entities (especially those who can be portrayed as “not paying their fair share”) the results of the study could have easily saved the funds spent to reach the fore-determined conclusion that was made by the majority party in the Nevada Legislature over a year ago…I guess that sort of shoots some more holes in the idea that our government is “efficient, effective, inclusive and accountable”.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 5/13/2010 6:33 AM 
Categories: Nevada Vision Project
Tags: Nevada Budget State Spending Taxes Government
Categories: Nevada Vision Project
Tags: Nevada Budget State Spending Taxes Government
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