Columnist Jeff German: Chamber fights only for big guys

Friday, Jan. 10, 2003 | 10:57 a.m.

Many upstanding citizens belong to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. They are hard-working, small-business people who care a great deal about this community.

On its website, the chamber boasts that 85 percent of its 7,000 members are entrepreneurs with fewer than 25 employees.

And yet big business, not the little guy, has been dominating the chamber's political agenda in the battle to decide which taxes will best keep Nevada afloat for decades to come.

In this case big business does not mean the casino industry, but rather banking institutions, developers and hospital corporations, which have not been paying their fair share of taxes to preserve our healthy lifestyle.

These companies, unlike the casino industry, oppose the gross receipts tax that Gov. Kenny Guinn now says is important to the state's economic future.

Big business opposes the tax, a one-quarter of 1 percent bite out of total revenues over $350,000, because it will cut, however slightly, into the hundreds of millions of dollars in profits big business will be making in the coming decades.

The chamber over the years has selfishly pursued its own interests at the expense of the public's. For nearly two decades, it refused to join the battle against Yucca Mountain until this spring, when it was too late to have any meaningful impact.

This summer the chamber, again driven by big business, hooked up with Nevada Power in an unsuccessful bid to defeat Question 14, a ballot initiative that would have encouraged the Legislature to remove legal obstacles barring a public hostile takeover of the utility. The initiative coincided with an offer by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to buy the power company, a move predicted to save ratepayers 20 percent on their monthly electric bills.

Now the chamber and its big business bosses want the governor to push for a sales tax on services, which will put the burden on the average citizen, who already is well-taxed, not them. More of the same from the chamber.

This week Chamber President Kara Kelley was quoted as saying the gross receipts tax has only been discussed for 20 months. To her, 20 months apparently is not enough time for intelligent people to figure out that the tax is essential to the state's economic survival.

It was more than enough time for the governor's independent Task Force on Tax Policy to come to that conclusion, and for Guinn to figure it out.

How much more time do we need?

The founding fathers only took five months in 1787 to write the U.S. Constitution, one of the most complex and enduring documents in history.

It's time Kelley and the big business bosses think about the interests of the majority of the chamber's members.

They should think about the interests of all of us and give the governor the support he deserves.

The gross receipts tax, after all, would have little economic impact on the small businessman. It will cost a company with 10 employees that generates $1 million in revenues an extra $625 a year. That same business pays $385 a year in dues to the Chamber of Commerce.

The difference between the two fees is that the $625 turned over to the state goes toward hiring new teachers, fixing roads and developing programs for seniors. The $385 merely goes into the pockets of the big-business-dominated chamber.

A smart small businessman will see that he gets more bang for his buck by giving his money to the state to educate our future work force. He'll realize that he can reduce that tax bite to only $240 simply by canceling his chamber membership.