He didn't get the memo
Over the weekend, Terry Lanni, chairman and CEO of MGM Mirage, joined the tax-and-spend, big-government chorus in an article in which he called for more taxes on Nevada's businesses.
"Large busineses should provide for fair share of state's needs" read the column headline. But what does "fair share" mean? And what are the "state's needs?"
What about the needs of those who invest their money in Nevada's economy? What about the laborers and wage earners? What about the consumer? Do the state's "needs" trump their needs? Do we exist to serve the state, or does the state serve us?
Raising taxes on businesses can have the effect of reducing returns on investments, reducing wages, increasing unemployment and raising prices for consumers.
Mr. Lanni and the tax-and-spend, big-government chorus can harp all they want about diversifying Nevada's economy and strengthening our tax base, but those are mutually exclusive goals.
Raising taxes on Nevada's businesses increases the cost of doing business in Nevada, and that retards our economic growth and our ability to create a more diverse economy. However, retarding Nevada's economic growth and diversification definitely maintains both market and political power for Nevada's casino and labor-union complex.
I don't claim to read Mr. Lanni's mind, but when someone as intelligent as he is calls for clearly mutually exclusive goals, you have to wonder if there are ulterior motives. Of course, it is entirely possible that he simply just doesn't have these facts, or these facts, and he might have missed the memo on these facts.
