Hotel workers rally to protest possible free lunch tax

Robert Macy

Tuesday, April 14, 1998 | 10:22 a.m.

An Internal Revenue Service ruling that could impact hundreds of thousands of Nevadans could have national ramifications as well, Sen. Harry Reid warned Tuesday. And he urged boisterous workers at a Strip rally to send a message to the IRS: There is such a thing as a free lunch.

Reid, author of the taxpayer bill of rights, was the featured speaker at a noontime rally to protest an IRS plan that would tax free meals now provided to hotel employees.

"We in Nevada should be used to harassment," said Reid, D-Nev. "The IRS loves to harass service workers in Nevada."

A call to the IRS office in Washington, D.C. was not immediately returned.

Reid cited problems Nevada workers have had with the IRS, ranging from taxing on tip income to the agency setting collection and audit quotas.

"We are used to being the most audited, most harassed, most targeted state in the union when it comes to the IRS," Reid said

"But this is not just a Nevada problem. This is going to affect service workers across America."

Reid said the new rule, which is yet to be implemented, has not drawn the wrath of Congress because it has focused mainly on Nevada and its lifeblood hotel-casino industry.

"If we can convince workers around the country that this could affect them, we'll try to fix this in Congress," the senator said.

"There's no sentiment against the tax in Congress," Reid said after the rally. "Most people just don't understand what's happening. As long as it's viewed as solely a Nevada problem, nothing will be done."

Reid said the tax could cost Nevada service workers $300 a year, and could be implemented "in a matter of weeks."

Hundreds of workers gathered in front of the 5,005-room MGM Grand, the nation's largest hotel. Across the street, hundreds more gathered in front of the Tropicana Hotel-Casino.

The workers sported brown bags containing lunches prepared by the Culinary Union, Nevada's largest labor union. The Culinary includes some 40,000 workers in Southern Nevada.

Several workers urged a united front in the fight against the proposed tax.

"If the IRS gets one of us, they will get all of us," said Gary Kane, a bell person at the Las Vegas Hilton.