Columnist Erin Neff: Tax issue is a political tightrope for Perkins

Erin Neff

Friday, Dec. 13, 2002 | 5 a.m.

ASSEMBLY SPEAKER Richard Perkins isn't known for his rhetoric or crash-and-burn politics.

Despite his tall stature, Perkins speaks so quietly that it is usually the petite Barbara Buckley at his side who voices the Democratic Party's concerns in Carson City.

Perkins, it has been said, is the soft-spoken speaker who seeks not to ruffle conservatives and keeps liberals in his party from straying too far, choosing to be the type of centrist that voters accept.

But the state's budget crisis, coupled with Perkins' desire to be the next governor of Nevada, made the speaker's suddenly rising voice the first sound of leadership in the tax debate.

When Perkins criticized the business community recently, arguing that all taxes, including a levy on business, will be part of the legislative debate, he did something the current governor has not yet been willing to do.

Kenny Guinn declined to comment on taxes throughout the election year, instead referring all questions on the state's most important policy direction to a volunteer panel of citizens studying the budget.

Guinn has yet to propose a clear path out of the deficit and has been consulting everyone -- from Republicans to business leaders to gaming -- about what he should do.

Guinn is in for one rough session, trying to build support for $800 million in new revenue as his Republican Party retreats to cutting programs and looking for fat in government.

Already, Republicans in both houses are squawking about the tax proposal.

So Perkins is suddenly one of Guinn's strongest allies -- a move that the speaker calculated both for the state's benefit and his own political capital.

But it is fraught with the kinds of risk that only someone with higher political aspirations would fear.

If Perkins moves too far to the right he angers his caucus and treads the type of dangerous thin ice that covers the ponds dotting the landscape from the Reno airport to Carson City.

An alliance with Guinn, although wildly popular today, could prove risky in a Democratic primary for governor in 2006. The liberal state Sen. Dina Titus will argue that Perkins betrayed his party and the similarly moderate Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson will say the speaker didn't try his own ideas.

But some observers give Perkins a lot more credit.

Speaking out, as he did, about the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce's opposition to a quarter of 1 percent tax on gross receipts, Perkins might have won his biggest political ally -- the gaming industry.

Gaming bankrolls elections to degrees the chamber still only dreams about. Locking up casino money early not only would give Perkins the cash to run a state campaign, it could also lock his opponents out of the money.

One thing it will definitely do: make for a fascinating legislative session to watch.

Will Perkins go to bat for gaming on issues besides taxation?

And just how quickly will the chamber paint a bulls-eye on Perkins -- aiming not only to quiet him in the tax debate, but perhaps to stymie his political aspirations?

Lobbyists and other political observers tend to agree that the 2003 session will include -- finally -- some type of tax proposal.

The chamber is set to present Guinn its plan as early as today, claiming the gross receipts tax is unfair to small business, and opting instead for a sales tax on services.

Republicans, who already dislike the gross receipts proposal, got a boost for their argument last week when three legislative audits found sizable waste of taxpayer money, or at the very least, money that goes unaccounted for.

The conventional wisdom holds that Guinn will abandon the gross receipts for a sales tax on services as his own party clamors for cuts in services and more audits to root out waste.

Guinn has nothing to lose. His legacy centers on the popular Millennium Scholarship program and the Senior Rx plan that Republicans nationwide herald as a model.

The governor won a sweeping victory on Election Night despite the state's deficit and his failure to propose any pre-election plans for the economy. If that's how voters treated him during bad economic times, he stands to lose nothing as he bows out of office after his second term in 2006.

He also has no other plans for higher office.

Perkins, on the other hand, must prove this legislative session that he's a leader worthy of handling the state's biggest crises. He must show he can work with Republicans. And he must show Nevadans why new taxes are needed.

Either Perkins emerges as a real speaker, or he mutes his own political chances.