Mining industry launches pre-emptive strike against new taxes

Erin Neff

Friday, June 7, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.

A new ad being run by the Nevada Mining Association sends a clear message to lawmakers -- don't raise our taxes.

The 30-second television spot, airing in Las Vegas, Reno and Carson City, is designed to show that the mining industry has paid its "fair share" to state education coffers, according to Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Association.

"The timing is now to get this message out," Fields said.

That's because a panel on which he serves -- the Nevada Task Force on Tax Policy -- is examining how much additional revenue the state needs to fund education and health care, and how that revenue should be raised.

"What we're doing is working on a message that demonstrates that mining over the years ... has paid an awful lot of taxes primarily in the local communities in which we operate," Fields said.

Ted Jelen, chairman of the political science department at UNLV, called the ad a "shameless" attempt to avoid taxation.

"The simplest thing for lawmakers to do is to raise the taxes Nevada already collects," Jelen said. "And that singles out the main industries."

The casino industry, represented by the Nevada Resort Association, has consistently said it is willing to be a part of a broad-based tax increase -- one that targets all businesses.

Guy Hobbs, chairman of the tax panel, said he has tried to keep the discourse in his committee's deliberations based strictly on accurate numbers and projections.

"You go through something where analytically you've thoroughly examined this ... and you would like to think that the facts would speak for themselves, without the spin," Hobbs said.

The mining ad features a teacher and students at Spring Creek High School in Elko, and the voice-over says that the mining industry has contributed $400 million to K-12 education.

That is the amount mining companies paid to local governments during the gold mining boom of 1987 to 2000, Fields said.

The state's 100 mining companies pay three taxes that benefit local governments -- property, sales and use, and net proceeds of mining. Half of the latter tax goes directly to local governments.

Since the industry does not contribute significant taxes to the state's general fund, Fields said he worries lawmakers might miss two-thirds of mining's taxes.

But Kara Kelley, chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, said she does not think informing legislators is a role individual industries should play.

"I think that's the purpose of the governor's tax policy committee," Kelley said. "That's the group examining the shortfalls and the actual revenues and the ones to make recommendations on where that money should come from."

Fields said his association, which has 300 individual members, also plans to discuss the donations of computers, buses and water systems individual companies have made to schools.

His association is also planning to take its message on the road to the editorial boards of newspapers statewide.

"The important message that we talk to policymakers in Las Vegas about is that if Battle Mountain, Eureka and Elko are healthy due to a vibrant mining industry, then those areas don't have to ask Clark County to support them," Fields said.