IFC delays tax study, new release date unknown
This might be the first time I've broken news here on Write on Nevada, so enjoy.
By contract, the Interim Finance Committee's tax study, prepared by Moody's Analytics, was scheduled to be released by July 1, 2010. From the original Request for Proposal:
The consultant will prepare and present a final written report of its findings and recommendations, including the proposed strategies and recommendations from the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group, to the Interim Finance Committee on or before July 1, 2010. (Emphasis original)But Dave Ziegler and Russell Guindon, both from the Legislative Counsel Bureau, have confirmed that the release of the tax study has been delayed. Both told me that the state is now negotiating with Moody's to extend its contract. Neither would offer me a reason for the delay or tell me when Moody's will release the tax study or even when the new deadline will be released.
I've also called Sen. Horsford, chair of the tax study subcommittee of the IFC, but he won't comment on the record about it. If he does give me a comment, I'll update this post to include it. I've also got a call into Assemblyman Marcus Conklin, vice chair of the tax study subcommittee. I'll let you know what/if I hear back.
No word on when the next meeting of the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group will be, either.
I'll give you some more thoughts tomorrow, but I'll leave you today with NPRI's revenue-neutral tax study that would broaden, stabilize and simplify Nevada's tax system. It's the only current study of Nevada's tax system and may be for quite a while.
And it didn't cost the taxpayers of Nevada $253,000 of dubiously appropriated contingency funds, either.
Read moreAuthoritarian salaries
Remember those academic authoritarians at UNLV who wanted to civilize native Nevadans via military force (or at least a force of enlightened men like them)? Yes, those gentlemen were unhappy that Nevadans - real or imagined - preferred gambling and drinking rather than paying taxes to support fine art, music, theatre and the professors' salaries.
Speaking of salaries, NPRI acquired more public-worker salaries last week. So how much are these UNLV professors making?
*Dr. William M. Epstein made $139,633.01 in 2009, with $111,576.96 in base salary.
*Dr. William N. Thompson made $71,366.22 in 2009, with $57,587.52 in base salary.
Both are paid well above the personal per capita income in Nevada of $38,578.
Yup, nothing feels better than being degraded by well-off Ivory Tower elitists who hold jobs subsidized by the very people they appear to loathe.
Learn more at transparentnevada.com.
Rory Reid: No need to mess with Nevada's tax structure
From yesterday's Las Vegas Sun:
Reid has long declared he will not raise taxes, especially in this economy. And last week, he said the state's tax structure is sound enough not to mess with.Sen. Horsford, call your office.
Now, if Reid is looking for a revenue-neutral tax reform that broadens, simplifies and stabilizes Nevada's tax structure, he should check out NPRI's recent study, One Sound State, Once Again: Comprehensive fiscal reforms to again make Nevada strong, prosperous and free.
Of course, if Reid's the wonk he's portrayed as, maybe he already has.
For now, we should all just remember Reid's promise about taxes and the state tax structure.
"I disagree with that," he [Reid] said about the need for a tax increase.
Nevada now has the nation's highest unemployment rate
Just another reminder that the stimulus was and is an epic failure, especially for Nevada.
Nevada captured the top spot for joblessness in May, pushing Michigan out of a position it had held for more than four years.And of course, here comes Sen. Reid to say that things would have been worse without the stimulus.
New numbers from the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation show joblessness in the Silver State jumped to 14 percent in May, up from 13.7 percent in April...
Nevada's increase comes even as the recession is easing nationally. The country's unemployment rate ticked down from April to May, dropping from 9.9 percent to 9.7 percent...
Nevada's employers did add 4,800 jobs overall, but most of the increase came from seasonal or Census hiring. Still, the additions are an improvement from a year ago, when employers cut payrolls by 2,400 jobs from April to May. (Emphasis added)
On a day that Nevada's unemployment rate topped the nation, Sen. Harry Reid said things would be even worse if Democrats had not acted to create or save jobs through economic stimulus.It's easy to evaluate Sen. Reid's claim that the stimulus has helped the economy, because President Obama told us how the stimulus would affect the (national, not state) unemployment rate when Congress passed it last year. Needless to say, Obama and Sen. Reid were completely wrong on the stimulus' impact.
Reid, D-Nev., defended Democrats in a Senate speech Friday morning, saying 3 million Americans going to work today have Democrats to thank for pushing through the economic recovery bill last year.
"The economy in Nevada is not in good shape. It is getting better but not good," he said. "We are one of the leading states in the union with unemployment but think how much worse it would be if we have not been able to create these jobs in Nevada with the recovery bill."
Objectively, Nevada's unemployment situation can't be placed solely on Reid and Obama. After all, the Nevada Legislature passing the largest tax increase in the state's history last session and the legislative leadership's constant efforts to create a corporate income tax have contributed to our state's high unemployment.
But when you have politicians in power who don't understand economics, these are the results you get.
Bonus video of Sen. Reid talking about job loss.
Wyoming: Don't move to Nevada, because it's considering a corporate income tax
Ideas have consequences, and in this case just talking about the idea of a corporate income tax is being used to make companies think twice about coming to Nevada.
Thanks, liberals.
Stop for a minute and think what you paid last year in your States income tax. If you are comparing Nevada and Wyoming, keep in mind that the Nevada State Legislature is being lobbied hard to install a corporate income tax. Don't gamble that this will not happen. Wyoming never has and never will have a state income tax on corporations. It is one of the only states with a budget surplus! (Emphasis added)And actually, it's worse than they describe. It's Nevada's legislative leadership that is rallying the hardest for a corporate income tax.
Imagine the economic damage they'll cause if they succeed.
Minimum wages destroy jobs
Nevada is about to raise the minimum wage on July 1, 2010 from $7.25 an hour to $8.25 an hour for those without health insurance - a 13.8 percent increase. Those minimum wage workers better be able to produce more than $8.25 an hour (plus payroll tax costs, and other administration costs associated with your labor) in value, otherwise they are out of job! I expect unemployment to increase after July 1 (if businesses haven't already anticipated the wage increase and cut jobs already).
Wynn takes on Washington
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Steve Wynn is mad and he's not going to take it anymore. "China is stable, Washington is not" says Wynn. Washington has gone crazy, pumping out one bad idea after another. Mr. Wynn couldn't be more right.
Still fighting for liberty in Massachusetts
Nevada, unlike Massachusetts, is a right-to-work state, meaning it's much easier to get a job here without joining a union. When Maj. Stephen L. Godin, a retired U.S. Marine teaching Naval Science (Navy JROTC) at North High in Worcester, Mass., was told he had to pay dues to the local teacher union, he refused.
Fortunately, Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill in response to Godin's actions that allows all JROTC teachers in the state to avoid paying union dues. Politicians in Massachusetts passed the bill because the U.S. military pays for half of JROTC salaries and already covers medical and dental insurance expenses.
But here's another good reason for it: Forcing people to pay dues to an organization that spends most of its time engaging in political lobbying on one-sided issues that have very little to do with education is objectionable and morally equivalent to theft.
What's happening with the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group?
Last time we saw them was on May 14, when the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group ordered Moody's Analytics to revise its entire preliminary report and discussed ways to skirt the open-meeting law.
And there's no truth to the rumor that Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group Chairman Robert Lang moved back home to Virginia because he couldn't handle the Vegas summer heat. As he told us at the last meeting, he's from New York not Virginia.
All kidding aside, I called their legislative staff today and Dave Ziegler told me their next meeting has not been scheduled, but should happen "sometime this summer."
Now, Chairman Lang can call a meeting at any point, but it's probably a little difficult with people's schedules and vacations ... and because the NVSG ordered Moody's to rewrite its entire preliminary report and do a better job of incorporating the NVSG's suggestions. And because the public found out what the NVSG was proposing and was not amused - calls for other people to take and spend your money aren't popular. Who knew?
One problem is that the NVSG has 20 unique individuals on it who all have different ideas about what the future of Nevada should look like. Which is precisely why the idea of the NVSG determining a singular vision for Nevada's 3 million people is such a joke.
Also complicating the mix is that the whole purpose of the NVSG is to provide the legislature with political cover for passing tax increases.
So even though the NVSG isn't meeting for a few more weeks, the legislators who created it and want to raise your taxes in 2011 (and create a corporate income tax) are still hard at work behind the scenes.
Keep checking in with Write on Nevada and NPRI.org, and we'll let you know the latest on the NVSG as soon as we know.
In the meantime, check out NPRI's revenue-neutral tax reform proposal that would broaden, stabilize and simplify Nevada's tax structure.
Respect my authoritah
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Not too long ago, a man from Illinois named Barack Obama promised to scale back presidential power ... until he got elected to the office of U.S. president. Enjoy the parody from Comedy Central's Jon Stewart.
