Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: A tax fix that is fair

Thursday, July 18, 2002 | 9:01 a.m.

UPDATE on taxes. This stuff is hard.

Like anything else in life, if it were easy everyone would be doing it. Instead, the Governor's Task Force on Tax Policy is trudging along toward a November deadline at which time we will have to provide both the Nevada Legislature and Gov. Kenny Guinn our recommendations for finding the revenues needed to get the state back on an even keel. We might even suggest the ways and means to find the money necessary for legislators to do the job the voters expect them to do. That would be a state in which the quality of life for all citizens is at least as good as it was when the people first got here.

I am one of eight members of the task force, which consists of private citizens who have volunteered their time and energy to try to sift through the reams and reams of paperwork, plans, graphs and proposals from interested parties across the state in an effort to make some sense out of a taxing structure in this state that, it has become quite clear, no longer serves the growing needs and expectations of our citizens.

That there is a structural deficit -- that's the difference between what is already committed for the public good such as education, roads and highways, health care, parks and police and, yes, even wildlife conservation, and the expected revenues over time to pay for them -- is not a secret. In fact, our elected officials have known for at least 15 years that the method Nevada uses for levying and collecting taxes and the groups upon which the greatest tax burden falls has been out of whack. And yet for legislative season after legislative season the lawmakers meet in Carson City, rob Peter to pay Paul, and go home without addressing the structural flaws in the system.

What I have learned over the past few months is that this failure to act has not been all the fault of the elected officials. To be sure, those who have failed to take action that they knew was necessary are responsible for the fix in which Nevada finds itself. But so, too, must the people of this state accept a large portion of the blame for others not getting the job done.

In the first place, trying to understand the myriad notions that comprise a taxing structure and the interdependencies that define the mosaic of revenue raising inventions that have been codified into law for decades and decades in this state is a mission impossible for even the most astute members of the elected elite.

If it weren't for the chairman of our task force, Guy Hobbs, some of us would be forever lost in the paperwork. And if he hadn't asked Jeremy Aguerro and the rest of the volunteer members of the Technical Working Group to work what seems like night and day to make sense of all the numbers, it is unlikely that we would be able to approach the November deadline with any degree of confidence that we will be able to complete our task in a most professional manner.

But beyond the ability of the lawmakers to understand what they are dealing with -- a task that will be much easier to accomplish going forward thanks to a matrix work product that should be the envy of the entire country -- there is always the political process with which they have had to deal. And that, I suggest, is the real culprit for the mess in which we find ourselves.

How big is the mess? In other words, how much revenue will the state need to raise to pay for all, most or even some of what the people want, need and expect? The final numbers aren't done but the number cannot fit in the proverbial breadbox, which means that everyone who has an ability to pay something in this state toward the common good probably will.

Let me rephrase. I believe our Task Force will recommend in great detail the manner and method of taxation that will secure a brighter future for Nevadans without compromising the economic attractiveness that sets Nevada apart from our neighbors. What I am less certain about is the will of the people to support the lawmakers in what probably will be the most difficult of political decisions.

You see, if the elected officials weren't so afraid of voter disapproval, they would have long ago corrected the basic flaws in the system that would have kept Nevada at the lead instead of near the rear of the pack of 49 other states when it comes to quality of life indicators. That doesn't mean we would have been taxed to death. On the contrary, we would have been taxed smarter so that growth and prosperity would have been the result, not a deficit so large that children can't have school books and mental health care in this state is virtually nonexistent.

Wasting our money should not be tolerated and voters must always be vigilant about such things. But most people will admit, especially those who have witnessed what our Task Force has seen, that to do nothing when something is required is a dereliction more worthy of political defeat than a courageous stand to tell people what they sometimes don't want to hear but should.

I believe that when our work is done, Nevadans will have an honest and comprehensive work product and the elected officials will have a roadmap to better days. Days in which those who cannot afford to pay more will not and those who can afford to but never have, will get with the program. What they do with that report will answer the question about what kind of state Nevadans want to live in for the next few decades.

Like I said, it ain't easy. But nothing good ever is.