Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2002 | 10:48 a.m.
The state Task Force on Tax Policy officially disbanded Nov. 15 when the group forwarded its 1,100-page recommendation to the governor.
But the appointed citizens who studied the state's budget aren't ready to walk away from Nevada's financial troubles.
"One of the observations that has been made is that some of us have had our heads in the tax structure for a long time," task force member Ken Lange said. "There's a lot of education that has to take place and there are some questions that have to be answered."
Twelve months of meetings took task force members through the financial history of the state, trends and economic modeling and led to a multi-tiered proposal of tax hikes on cigarettes, liquor and property and new levies on entertainment and business receipts.
"There is no question that when the Legislature opens, there will be a reason to go through an explanation," said Guy Hobbs, the task force's chairman. "I clearly am resolved to doing that."
Hobbs said that while he will try to walk a fine line between serving as a resource and advocating for the plan, he is happy to do either.
"It's one thing to make the recommendations," Hobbs said. "It's another to thing to explain them and ultimately the report either sells on its merits or it doesn't."
The state's business community, in the voices of the Las Vegas and Reno-Sparks chambers of commerce, has strongly opposed the proposed quarter of one percent tax on gross receipts over $350,000.
In the process, task force members have seen business owners and professors ask why other tax options were not considered.
"It continues to surprise me that a number of people who take positions on the tax have done so without reading the report," panelist Mike Sloan, an executive with Mandalay Resort Group, said. "I intend to continue to push for a broad-based business tax."
Hobbs said he intends to serve as a resource, both to correct "misinformation" and to answer questions about the report.
Legislative leaders encourage lawmakers to study the lengthy report in an attempt to understand how the task force crafted its recommendation.
"I'd like all legislators to read that before we get to Carson City so that we can have a good debate on all of the proposals," Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said.
Gov. Kenny Guinn has already started making a case to fellow Republicans that the state's budget crisis is worsening.
Last week Guinn said $800 million in new revenue is needed just to cover the cost of existing services, with no expansion in any area.
"I think the (task force) report should be required reading," Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said.
Hobbs said some criticism he has heard of the gross receipts tax -- including discussion of a sales tax on services as an alternative -- lead him to believe that the critics were not familiar with the entire task force report.
"If people are focusing their efforts on one element of it, and have not taken the time to read through sections 5, 6 and 7 and have not seen how it is we came to recommend the gross receipts, then they are not doing it justice," Hobbs said. "A lot of folks haven't taken the time to go back and look to understand the way the recommendations came down the way it did."
Task force member Russ Fields, executive director of the Nevada Mining Association, said he also believes he and other panelists have a role in selling their work.
"Nov. 15 was the dissolution of the official duties of the task force," Fields said. "But having said that, I can't see any of us who would say, 'No, I won't comment on it because it's done.' We still have roles to play."
Fields said he would be hesitant to lobby the Legislature directly about the tax recommendations since he also represents the mining industry and does not want to be perceived as having a conflict of interest.
Other task force members also represent interested parties, from Lange's role as executive director of the Nevada State Education Association to panelist Sloan's stumping for the gaming industry as general counsel and a vice president of the Mandalay Resort Group.
Panelist Luther Mack, who owns several McDonald's restaurant franchises in the Reno area, represents small businesses.
"As a businessman, I'm going to be very much involved to look at how anything affects my own businesses and also other businesses," Mack said. "I think the committee should have a role in backing up any statements made to the Legislature on the tax plans and I don't think this process is over yet."
Panelist Brian Greenspun, president and editor of the Las Vegas Sun, said the eight members of the task force -- through their deliberations -- have become valuable resources on tax policy.
"As a citizen of this state, having been on the task force, we have each gained knowledge," Greenspun said. "We would be remiss as citizens not to speak up and talk out on tax policy.
"We all live here and as this tax policy debate goes, so goes Nevada and so goes the way of our quality of life," he added.
Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said he's not surprised task force members feel the way they do.
"They spent a lot of time, became intimately involved with the data and of course, having them advocate for it is the best option," Herzik said. "They should be, if not advocates, certainly the voices that explain the reasoning behind it, its need, the different options that were considered.
Herzik said that while that is "quite an appropriate form of lobbying," he said he thought that ultimately Guinn needs to be the lead voice on taxes.
"He's going to be the one that people follow," Herzik said.
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