Neal’s casino tax gets no support

Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2001 | 11:21 a.m.

CARSON CITY --- Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, has introduced his bill to raise the tax on Nevada casinos by $300 million a year but he doesn't have an ounce of support initially from his colleagues in the Senate.

Senate Bill 105 calls for boosting the tax on those casinos that report $134,000 or more in gross revenue a month from the current 6 1/4 percent to 10 1/4 percent. When Neal asked if any senator wanted to join him as a co-sponsor Monday, there was dead silence.

The casino industry, of course, is opposed to any tax increase, as it was two years ago. And the timing is bad, says Bill Bible, president of the Nevada Resort Association.

For the first seven months of this fiscal year, taxes from the gaming industry have fallen by 1 percent to $306 million. The economic experts have been predicting the tax collections would rise by 5.9 percent for the fiscal year. So there must be a major turnaround in the next five months to reach the projections.

"Now is not the time to consider an increase in gaming taxes," Bible said. The NRA represents a good share of the major casinos in Southern Nevada.

Neal, asked if had a better chance this session than in 1999, said, "I don't know."

As a backup measure, Neal also introduced SB104, which would put an advisory question on the 2002 election ballot asking voters whether they think the Legislature should increase the tax by 2 percent, 4 percent or 6 percent.

In this way, he said, the public would have a chance to speak. Neal tried to get an initiative petition to raise the gaming tax to 11 1/4 percent on the major casinos but he fell short of the 44,000 signatures he needed. He said he had gathered more than 20,000 signatures but the petition was never turned in.

Bible said, "Sen. Neal has made no secret that after it became apparent people would not support his initiative petition, he would return to the Legislature with a package of bills to single out the gaming industry for unfair taxation.

"We will oppose the petition in the same manner as we did last session."

The bills were transferred to the Senate Taxation Committee, where a similar tax increase measure died two years ago. The membership of the committee is the same this year as in 1999.

Neal said if he fails in this Legislature, he will revive his efforts at an initiative petition. The last drive used only volunteers. But the next time, Neal said, a professional company will be hired to collect the names.

Two other bills were introduced by Neal aimed at the gaming industry.

SB100 would require a slot machine player to be paid his winnings, regardless if the machine malfunctions.

There have been a number of cases where jackpots have been hit in Nevada but were never paid because of a malfunction by the machine.

"This is bad for the public image of gaming," Neal said. "It's the casino that examines the machine. And this puts the player at a disadvantage."