The Search For The Magic Tax Structure
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
Having listened to a number of members of the majority party in the Nevada Legislature share their mantra talking points that maintain Nevada needs a system which fairly distributes the tax burden and provides revenue in sufficient amounts to satisfy our needs, I’m reminded of the song, “To Dream The Impossible Dream”. Beyond the carefully orchestrated messaging that their party dispenses to faithful followers, I can’t believe that anyone with an ounce of common sense would be falling for the idea.
I get the part that those who want to be able to keep cashing checks from the Nevada checkbook aren’t excited about having to go without or perhaps have reductions in the amount of the checks they are cashing. I fully understand that it is challenging when the perceived needs far exceed the ability to satisfy those desires to provide. Grown-ups have to deal with those circumstances on a rather frequent basis.
No one is saying that the things which don’t get as much money as we’d all like them to have aren’t important. Yes, Education (K-12 and Higher Education) is something that matters. Yes, providing for needy individuals with benefits for health services or other types of assistance is also important. The simple fact is that we could have more “important” than we can pay for and so we have to figure out how to make what we’ve got to cover the most important. Simply increasing taxes under the guise of “these people need to start paying their ‘fair’ share” is not a legitimate approach.
If the unemployment situation hasn’t taught anyone in government a lesson about the importance of maintaining a healthy private sector, perhaps the un-employment process needs to touch these elected officials in a way that they no longer have their designated chairs to be voting on policy matters. They should be identified as not understanding what makes the world actually work.
People who do understand that you can’t tax our way to economic prosperity should be elected to replace those who don’t understand. From this replacement process we need to have a fundamental understanding that recognizes government is at best a tolerable burden, which shouldn’t weigh on productive people and enterprises to the point where they are no longer capable of being profitable.
For those who might be advancing the myth that Nevada’s tax structure can be changed to provide for an unending supply of revenue – please check out the Fiscal Fact report for May, 2010 from the Tax Foundation. It not only details the point that nearly all states have been affected by a drop in revenue (only 5 states collected more in 2009 than they did in 2008), but the changes in revenue from different types of taxes is also variable.
If we are supposed to believe that Nevada would simply be better off if we had a different set of taxes than we currently do – that is not so. If we are supposed to believe that somebody or some business sector isn’t paying their fair share of taxes – that is also not so.
Although there are some indications that we could figure out a better approach to building a sound state budget – those improvements and strengthened accountability which demonstrate we (Nevada taxpayers) are getting our money’s worth for what is being spent on government programs/projects – take higher priority than simply extracting more tax revenue from the bank accounts of those deemed capable of paying more.
Having listened to a number of members of the majority party in the Nevada Legislature share their mantra talking points that maintain Nevada needs a system which fairly distributes the tax burden and provides revenue in sufficient amounts to satisfy our needs, I’m reminded of the song, “To Dream The Impossible Dream”. Beyond the carefully orchestrated messaging that their party dispenses to faithful followers, I can’t believe that anyone with an ounce of common sense would be falling for the idea.
I get the part that those who want to be able to keep cashing checks from the Nevada checkbook aren’t excited about having to go without or perhaps have reductions in the amount of the checks they are cashing. I fully understand that it is challenging when the perceived needs far exceed the ability to satisfy those desires to provide. Grown-ups have to deal with those circumstances on a rather frequent basis.
No one is saying that the things which don’t get as much money as we’d all like them to have aren’t important. Yes, Education (K-12 and Higher Education) is something that matters. Yes, providing for needy individuals with benefits for health services or other types of assistance is also important. The simple fact is that we could have more “important” than we can pay for and so we have to figure out how to make what we’ve got to cover the most important. Simply increasing taxes under the guise of “these people need to start paying their ‘fair’ share” is not a legitimate approach.
If the unemployment situation hasn’t taught anyone in government a lesson about the importance of maintaining a healthy private sector, perhaps the un-employment process needs to touch these elected officials in a way that they no longer have their designated chairs to be voting on policy matters. They should be identified as not understanding what makes the world actually work.
People who do understand that you can’t tax our way to economic prosperity should be elected to replace those who don’t understand. From this replacement process we need to have a fundamental understanding that recognizes government is at best a tolerable burden, which shouldn’t weigh on productive people and enterprises to the point where they are no longer capable of being profitable.
For those who might be advancing the myth that Nevada’s tax structure can be changed to provide for an unending supply of revenue – please check out the Fiscal Fact report for May, 2010 from the Tax Foundation. It not only details the point that nearly all states have been affected by a drop in revenue (only 5 states collected more in 2009 than they did in 2008), but the changes in revenue from different types of taxes is also variable.
If we are supposed to believe that Nevada would simply be better off if we had a different set of taxes than we currently do – that is not so. If we are supposed to believe that somebody or some business sector isn’t paying their fair share of taxes – that is also not so.
Although there are some indications that we could figure out a better approach to building a sound state budget – those improvements and strengthened accountability which demonstrate we (Nevada taxpayers) are getting our money’s worth for what is being spent on government programs/projects – take higher priority than simply extracting more tax revenue from the bank accounts of those deemed capable of paying more.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 5/19/2010 10:24 AM 
Categories: Nevada State Spending
Tags: Nevada Budget State Spending Taxes Government
Categories: Nevada State Spending
Tags: Nevada Budget State Spending Taxes Government
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