Saturday, July 12, 2003 | 3:41 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION: July 13, 2003
Every Nevadan will look at his or her wallet when the Legislature finally comes up with a plan to fund the state budget and wonder what the impact will be.
In January Gov. Kenny Guinn asked for nearly $1 billion of new taxes to fund the state budget. Since then, proposals have ranged from a little more than $700 million to nearly $900 million.
Proposals to raise that money include taxes on business -- payroll, gross receipts, professional services and an increase on the employee head tax -- and increases on property taxes, real estate transfers, cigarettes, gaming and alcohol.
When the Legislature reconvenes over the next two days, lawmakers will take up a plan that would raise more than $800 million in new taxes.
One of the issues that has stalled the debate is the central question: How should the tax burden be passed around?
Like other Nevadans, the lawmakers who make the final decision will have to pay those taxes as well.
The Legislature is made up of people who work in all walks of life. What follows is a look at how the tax plans would affect the lawmakers.
ASSEMBLY
As a teacher for 32 years and a lifelong resident of Nevada, Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, said he's willing to see his own taxes increase if it means a more stable funding source of the state's schools.
"We're talking about adding taxes that other states have relied on for years," Anderson said. "We have a responsibility to live in a democratic society, and running a government takes money. It's time we became more aware of our responsibilities."
As a school employee, the business taxes, which will likely bring in a bulk of the new money, won't have a direct effect on him. The schools budget, however, does include a little raise for teachers.
The biggest impact for Anderson and his family would be an increase to the real estate transfer tax, he said.
"I'm getting close to retirement and will probably be downsizing my home here," said Anderson, 61. "It could cost me more to sell my house in two or three years than if I did it today."
As an independent management consultant, Assemblyman Walter Andonov, R-Henderson, said it's unlikely he would meet the bar for the suggested gross receipts tax or the payroll tax. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't feel the impact, Andonov said.
"The new taxes would affect me just like they would any other Nevadan," Andonov said. "Every tax trickles down to the average citizen. We'll all pay the price in the long run."
As one of the holdouts in the legislative impasse, Andonov said his position remains unchanged by the Nevada Supreme Court's ruling.
Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, R-Reno, said she would not be taxed directly. She has a few rental properties and some mini-storage centers, but she said not enough to quality for the gross receipts tax.
Angle believes, though, that the taxes would hurt her business and those of her neighbors.
"This really affects the economy of the state," said Angle, a holdout against the tax plan. "It's much better to have business and jobs here than unemployment. There is a practical side to this as well as a principled side."
Assemblyman Morse Arberry Jr., D-Las Vegas, is a former administrative manager in the city of Las Vegas' neighborhood services department. He is currently in business with his girlfriend, a real estate broker.
Since he doesn't own a company or work for a large corporation that would pay the business taxes, Arberry said the overall tax package would not have a great effect on him personally.
"Overall, this is a fair tax plan that really doesn't hit the little guy," Arberry said. "I consider myself the little guy."
Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, said he's prepared to do his part to balance the state budget. He's expecting to pay more through taxes on alcohol and live entertainment.
"I'm not a smoker but I occasionally drink and I enjoy going to the shows on the Strip or some of the concerts when they come to town," Atkinson, a manager in Clark County's Parks and Community Services Department, said. "We're all going to have to participate if we're going to keep this state going."
Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, a former partner in Wilson, Beers and Alu, is now a consultant for the firm working on software development.
Beers said the payroll tax that has been proposed would be felt by the company, based on its 12 employees. He also said a proposed franchise tax that gives a business an option of paying on its gross receipts or net profits would affect his company.
"We have the luxury of being able to increase our prices, so that's what we could do," said Beers, who has held out against new taxes.
He said he expected to "pay a little bit more for everything."
"Just as I would plan to raise my prices, I would expect others to raise theirs," he said.
Assemblyman David Brown, R-Henderson, has been one of the Assembly holdouts. He is an attorney in private practice, and his wife runs a family business providing counseling and advice for businessmen.
The total impact from a gross receipts tax, payroll tax and other sundry taxes on the table would likely be less than $2,000 a year for his family, Brown said. The $450,000-or-less exemption from gross receipts would likely exempt both him and his wife from that controversial aspect of the tax, he said.
A payroll tax would probably hit him with about $240 a year in new taxes, Brown said.
His concern is that some businesses, like his, will pay little while others will be hit hard. It depends partly on a business' overhead.
Some businesses also will have to hire more people just to stay in compliance with the new tax laws, Brown said.
Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, doesn't expect her organization, the Clark County Legal Aid Society, to pay any more in whatever taxes are passed, since the nonprofit is exempt.
But she is pleased with the proposal on the table.
"One of the best things about the tax package is that it's really designed to make businesses, banks and the gaming industry pay the same taxes they pay in other states," Buckley, lawyer and director of the legal aid society, said.
"It's not about adding costs for the average person, it's about having a fairer system."
Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, one of the holdouts, would feel any tax hike personally.
Virtually every aspect of his varied business dealings would be hit.
Under the tax proposal that passed the Senate, he would pay a room tax of 0.25 percent on the price of slots for his recreational-vehicle park. Carpenter has about 40 employees, many of whom, he said, would trigger a 0.6 percent payroll tax included in the Assembly package or 1 percent included in the Senate's.
His convenience store takes in about $2.5 million in revenue annually, so Carpenter would have to pay about $500 annually in the Assembly package, which includes the franchise fee. His customers would pay more for cigarettes and alcohol. He would also lose most of the deduction the state now gives businesses to cover the cost of accounting for sales, tobacco and liquor taxes.
Carpenter also deals in real estate, and a 0.25 percent tax on real estate sales would hit him or his customers there, too.
"It ain't much fun being in small business anymore," Carpenter said. "They (those supporting the franchise fees) keep saying they want to get the Wal-Marts and big banks, but the people who'll end up paying the bulk of this will be small businesses."
As the owner of a small real estate company, Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, said she and her husband probably would see their business' annual tax bill increase by no more than $400 a year, depending on the taxes that are passed.
"We do not feel it would put us out of business," she said.
The business would not meet the proposed threshold for having to pay a gross receipts tax, Chowning said.
A real estate transfer tax would give Chowning and her husband more to explain to prospective sellers and buyers, but would not have a financial impact on the business, she said.
One of the 15 Republicans who had blocked passage of a tax plan, Chad Christensen, R-Las Vegas, would see his business pay more if gross receipts or payroll taxes are approved.
Christensen Partners, a management consulting and tax planning firm, has gross receipts of about $2 million a year and five employees, including Christensen and his two partners.
"My guess is it would be a couple thousand," Christensen said about the potential cost of new taxes to his firm.
However, if a service tax is revived, that could "really hit us," he said.
Christensen also runs his own private consulting business. He said it's well under the $450,000 threshold that has been discussed for a gross receipts tax.
Assemblyman Jerry Claborn, D-Las Vegas, said as a retired construction worker, the proposed new taxes probably wouldn't affect him at all.
"Many of the taxes you're talking about don't affect a retired guy," Claborn said.
Assemblyman Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas, said the possible tax increases being discussed would probably cost his electrical contracting business another $500 to $1,000 a year.
Collins, who owns Collins Power Services, said he will gladly pay that amount as long as it comes through gross receipts or net profits taxes, and not through a payroll tax.
Collins said if there is a payroll tax, the amount allowed to be taxed should be capped around $21,500. If there is no cap on a payroll tax, it would hurt workers because the tax would discourage employers from giving raises, which would raise their tax bill. Collins typically has five or six employees, he said.
"The more you pay your employees the more you pay in the tax so you would not want to give raises," he said.
A tax on a company's profits probably would not affect Collins because his company lost money last year, and this year's figures are behind last year's, Collins said.
Assemblyman Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, works only for the Legislature at this time, and he refused to comment on any potential tax plan.
But Conklin did say that the company he left to serve this term would feel most of the business taxes being discussed.
Conklin was manager of the Las Vegas office of Volt, a national temporary staffing company.
"They would have to pay the payroll tax on all their temporary employees," Conklin said.
Assemblyman Jason Geddes, R-Reno, said he doesn't think any of the tax proposals before the Legislature would affect him or his family directly.
"I don't think any of them jump out at me," he said.
Geddes is the environmental affairs manager at the University of Nevada, Reno, and his wife works from home as a freelance writer.
He said any one of the business taxes could affect his wife, but it depends on which version, since most of the versions have exemptions she would fall under.
"Other than that, we don't smoke, we're occasional drinkers -- but the actual cost of a six-pack isn't going to affect us much -- we don't gamble or see live entertainment, and we're not going to sell our house," he said.
Geddes, who has a 2 1/2-year-old son, said he supported raising taxes to help pay for Nevada's schools.
Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons, R-Reno, owned a wedding chapel in Reno until she sold it to her mother last year, but she will continue to pay taxes on the chapel until it is paid for in full in about five years.
She is also planning to open a political consulting firm in the next year.
"The gross receipts or payroll taxes would affect both businesses. But I don't think it will put me out of business," she said.
Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, expects to feel some of the tax increase, but not much.
Director of school district and community relations at the Community College of Southern Nevada, Giunchigliani said she won't directly pay business taxes, and her husband's advertising business was unlikely to be affected by the gross receipts tax.
"Our budget for entertaining may take a hit," she said.
Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, said that as a rancher, he would not be directly hit by the new taxes. The franchise fee exempts agricultural sales.
His opposition is based on ideological reasons, not personal finances.
"I represent an extremely conservative rural district," Goicoechea said. "My marching orders from my constituents were no (gross receipts tax) in any way, shape or form."
Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, as a financial consultant for Marco Consulting, a business based in Chicago with a three-person office in Las Vegas, said he has "a lot of sympathy for how (the business tax proposals) would affect small businesses."
Goldwater said the firm he works for would be impacted by net, gross receipts and payroll taxes, but he favors the gross receipts tax, which he said would be "easier to calculate ... and would give a small business more options."
"The goal of tax policy in this state should be to keep them away from hard-working citizens ... I would rather have a tax on big business," he said.
Goldwater's wife works for one of those big businesses, as a manager for Sprint PCS.
"She would be less directly affected by those proposals, though the company would pay them," he said.
Assemblyman Tom Grady, R-Carson City, a retiree who was once mayor of Yerington and executive director of the Nevada League of Cities, said the tax proposals wouldn't affect him directly, but he has voted against them.
"But this isn't about me, it's about my community," he said, "and the gross receipts tax could hurt economic development in my area since companies are not going to come with corporate income taxes."
Grady, who has two daughters and a daughter-in-law who teach, said he is also concerned about how the hold-up in deciding on a tax proposal is affecting Nevada's schools.
"I'm concerned that the longer this goes on, it will affect (my daughters) in their schools," he said.
The next time "Disney on Ice" comes to town, Assemblyman Josh Griffin, R-Henderson, expects to pay a little more for tickets to take his four young children.
"I'm not complaining -- I think the education budget proposed was appropriate, and you can't add books and technology to the schools without the funds to pay for it," said Griffin, who works as a public relations consultant when the Legislature is not in session.
He said he doesn't do enough business to qualify for any of the business taxes.
If the tax package compromise put forth during the last special session were returned for a vote, Griffin said he would again support it. Griffin was one of the Assembly Republicans who broke with his caucus and voted for taxes.
Assemblyman Don Gustavson, R-Sun Valley, is looking for work driving trucks and said none of the tax proposals would affect him directly.
"I don't smoke, am a light drinker, and do go out occasionally to see a concert, but a raise in taxes there wouldn't affect me too much," he said.
Neither would any of the business or property taxes, he said.
Still, he is against the idea of raising taxes and said that government could be reduced up to 10 percent.
"Basically, I'm against taxes and that's why I ran for office," he said.
Assemblyman Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, is a family physician and has eight children, the youngest of whom will be attending college this fall.
"I believe in education and think that it is a priority for our state. ... All the proposals would fund education, and I'm happy about that," he said.
At the same time, he said all the business taxes would affect him, as he has a total of five employees in his practice. The problem with a gross receipts tax, he said, is that physicians charge more than they collect.
"This tax is unfair to anybody in a business that actually bills more than they receive," said Hardy, who voted for the plan.
Hardy also said that any tax would affect all people.
"Indirectly, everybody's going to pay."
Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, manages family and trust investments, such as rental properties, including office buildings, retail locations and warehouses.
"Depending on the business income tax, I would pay some portion of it," Hettrick said. "I don't think it would be very significant."
Hettrick said he would pay "any of the business taxes that come through."
He say he would pay more on the payroll tax, but would prefer it over the gross receipts tax. He said he is concerned about hurting businesses, which he said "are going to have to maintain their profit margins" by cutting staff, raising prices or passing the cost onto consumers.
"When you combine all these taxes and divide by our population, you're going to have about $1,000 bill per family," he said.
He said he could support a total tax increase of $759 million without any form of what he called a "business income tax," such as the gross receipts tax. He said he could get votes from his caucus on a limited sales tax on services, a low sales tax increase and a payroll tax, along with the "sin" taxes and various other smaller fees and taxes.
He has led his caucus against the current plan.
Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, grew up in Las Vegas and has a son nearly three months old.
"I'm a product of the public schools here and tired of it being ranked at the bottom," he said. "By the time (my son) is bigger I don't want it to be."
He has graduated from law school and is studying for the bar. His wife works in the federal public defender's office. None of the proposals would affect them directly, he said.
Horne said the property transfer tax and the so-called sin tax also wouldn't make a dent in his pocketbook.
Assemblyman Ron Knecht, R-Carson City, a tax holdout, is an economist for the Public Utilities Commission.
"I don't think these taxes would have any discernable impact on me or my family directly," he said. "Of course they would have a substantial impact through the price of goods and services.
"When my mother and uncle come to Vegas once a year, they would pay higher taxes," he said. But in terms of a personal, financial stake, "It's a zero factor of consideration to me."
Assemblywoman Ellen Koivisto, D-Las Vegas, an employee of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, doesn't expect the potential tax increases to affect her personally.
But Koivisto said she had not connected the tax increases under consideration to any personal loss or gain.
She said she is most concerned with having a broad-based business tax based on a company's net profits rather than gross receipts. She has not warmed up to the idea of a payroll tax or property tax, she said.
Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, describes herself as a typical taxpayer, and she says that like other typical taxpayers, she won't be paying much more once a package is passed.
An administrator for the drug and mental health courts in Washoe County, she doesn't own a business.
"I don't smoke, I'm a social drinker," she said. "I own a home, so when I sell my home, I'll have to pay that."
She said consumers may pay a little more on items when businesses pass through the taxes, but notes that many corporations that do business in Nevada operate in other states that have higher taxes, and the prices are no different than here.
"We tried to keep it away from the average taxpayer," she said.
Dr. Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas, has personal reasons for opposing the franchise fee.
"The franchise fee would be an accounting nightmare because certain patients would be exempt from the tax," specifically those patients who depend on Medicare, Medicaid and other federally supported medical benefits, Mabey said.
"You're going to have to keep two books, one for regular patients and one for others," he said.
But the obstetrician said his other reason for opposing the franchise fee is that as an independent doctor, his revenue -- which supplies his personal income -- would be taxed. Doctors working for health-care companies would not be personally hit, Mabey said.
"I'm not against paying higher taxes, I think we need to, but I just think the gross receipts is an unfair tax," said Mabey, who voted against the plan. "I will never vote for it."
Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, is a recruiting officer at the Community College of Southern Nevada. He said he would not reap any benefits or be adversely affected by any of the proposed taxes because he does not own a business nor does he own property, he said.
Nonetheless, Manendo said he would like to see either a gross receipts or net profits tax and is open to a payroll tax, but does not support a property tax increase.
Assemblyman John Marvel, R-Battle Mountain, doesn't expect to pay any of the proposed taxes as a retired rancher who doesn't smoke or drink.
"I don't have an iron in the fire," he said. But he feels strongly about the taxes on the table and voted against them.
"The thing that really bothers me, I don't think we need a gross receipts tax," he said. "I've been in the Legislature for 25 years. My job is to try to legislate what is best for the state of Nevada.
"I want the taxes to be fair ... and I think gross receipts is a great inhibitor for businesses to move into the state of Nevada."
Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, says a tax package "is going to affect everybody somehow," and she's ready to do her part.
A senior advocate for Clark County, McClain said both she and her husband smoke -- she buys about two cartons a month -- so she'll be paying the cigarette tax "unless I decide to quit."
She doesn't think prices will go up considerably if a broad-based business tax, such as the gross receipts tax, is passed.
"I feel a small tax on these big businesses that have been making millions of dollars in Nevada need to step up to the plate," she said.
Former auto parts store manager Assemblyman Bob McCleary, D-North Las Vegas, says he is currently unemployed and sees no tax package that would cause him to take a financial hit.
McCleary prefers the net profits tax over the proposed gross receipts tax, but he is opposed to any kind of property or sales tax.
Assemblyman Harry Mortenson, D-Las Vegas, retired from his job as a nuclear physicist in 1997 and has run a small scientific consulting firm for the past 14 years.
He thinks the taxes his firm pays would rise a little from the proposals.
"While I don't like the payroll tax, I think it's acceptable. Businesses need to start paying their share of taxes in this state," Mortenson said. "We need to spend a little more money on things that help students and people, and it needs to come from businesses."
Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-North Las Vegas, is a fire captain in North Las Vegas. Having just finished law school, he may do some consulting work regarding fire service law and notes "the only tax plan that might affect me is if we did (professional) services tax."
He also has some real estate and could be affected if he sells it. Otherwise, he notes he would see taxes anyone else would, including on entertainment or "I could have a beer."
Assemblywoman Genie Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, an attorney and director of a corporation, says a tax increase will cause her to tighten her budget.
"Any taxation will bring at least in a little bit of increase in the cost of living," Ohrenschall said. With a daughter in college and a son getting ready for graduate school, she doesn't have a lot to spare, she said.
Her family will have to pull back spending on some areas, like watching movies, she said.
Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, said most of the proposals on the table would have minimal impact on him directly. A financial consultant with a real estate license, he is probably exempt from a gross receipts tax or payroll tax, he said.
Parks said the real estate transfer fee could affect some people looking to purchase their first home, but the fee is not likely to hit him personally.
He stays in hotels in Carson City and would be affected by a state room tax. Parks takes in live shows occasionally, and could pay another 10 percent if those costs were passed on, he said.
That might hit him pretty hard if he springs for the $200 tickets for Celine Dion or a similar show, he said.
"But I'm probably paying that anyway," Parks said.
Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, is deputy chief of police and says he has no outside businesses.
Reached after an hours-long meeting of the legislative leadership, he said he doesn't know how the tax plan, whatever it is, will affect him.
Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce, D-Las Vegas, said she will be little affected by the proposed taxes.
She doesn't own a business, doesn't plan to sell her home and doesn't smoke.
Pierce, a community liaison for the Culinary Union, says the alcohol tax is minimal, and since she drinks only occasionally, she won't feel it much.
She thinks big businesses such as Wal-Mart and Bank of America should take more of the state's tax burden.
Assemblyman Rod Sherer, R-Pahrump, a grocery store manager married to a personal trainer, said the tax increases would not affect him personally.
With two children in school, a 13-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son, Sherer does not advocate cutting educational programs.
"Whatever we spend must be spent in an efficient and effective way," Sherer said. "We have to put it toward good instead of an administrator's pocket."
However, he said, imposing a business income tax in a state that has never had one does not create a healthy climate. Instead he prefers an alternative payroll tax, which would double business and employee taxes. He voted against the tax plan.
Assemblywoman Valerie Weber, R-Las Vegas, said the taxes won't have a direct effect on her because, other than her legislative work, she is unemployed.
"Economic interests? I'm looking for a job when this is all over," she said. Weber said her opposition to the franchise fee and the size of the proposed new taxes is that it will hit all citizens in the state hard.
"This has to do with a philosophical difference," she said.
Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-North Las Vegas, works for the city of Las Vegas.
He did not return phone calls from the Sun on Friday.
SENATE
Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, expects as a consumer to carry part of the tax load, and anticipates that his law firm will also take a hit.
"I think all of the proposals out there ended up being paid by the consumer," he said. And as a partner in a law firm, he said, "I would assume it would be subject to the business taxes being floated."
Other tax ideas that have been proposed would not take a great toll on him, however.
Amodei would like to see taxes that "you don't need an accountant to comply with," such as a payroll tax, the sin taxes and entertainment tax.
Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, said he hasn't done the math, but he doesn't think most of the taxes on the table will affect his family directly. Care, an attorney, said his firm likely would pay a gross-receipts or payroll tax.
Lawyers and other professionals such as accountants or architects should be included in any new taxes, Care said.
"Just because I'm a lawyer doesn't mean I like all lawyers," he joked. "We need to expand the tax base, spread it across the board, and that includes legal services."
Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, does not see much of a direct personal impact on her or her family from the various tax proposals on the table.
As a union worker for a Las Vegas casino, the main impact would be on her industry, with the 0.5 percent raise on casino taxes, she said.
"I see it from the inside out," Carlton said. "The gaming industry is not the CEOs and guys at the top. The gaming industry is 200,000 people in the state. It is myself, the people I work with, the people who cook, who are maids."
She fears the payroll tax could hurt gaming and other industries, such as construction and mining, that pay good wages and provide good benefits, such as health insurance.
Carlton believes the worst taxes for people like her and her family are sales and property taxes -- and tax increases for those are not in the mix.
Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, works for WestCare, a treatment center for people with drug, alcohol and gambling addictions. A nonprofit company, WestCare probably would not be hit directly by any of the taxes in the various packages, she said, except for the payroll taxes on employees.
But Cegavske said she owned a convenience store for 13 years.
"I understand the ramifications of these taxes," she said. "The entity they go after the most is the small business owner."
Small retail operations, often operating on low profit margins but high retail volumes, would be affected by gross receipts, payroll, even increased cigarette and alcohol taxes, said Cegavske, who voted against tax plans.
Cegavske said she fears that the new taxes will require a new bureaucracy to administer. The gross receipts proposal "is definitely a new income tax," she added.
"I think it's bad for the economy."
Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, a small businessman in insurance and book sales, said he may have to pay a tax as a sole proprietor of $100 a year. He has no employees, Coffin said.
If there were a gross receipts tax, he said, it would depend on the threshold. If a business is exempt from the first $450,000, he said, he won't be paying much more.
Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Henderson, president of a nonprofit construction trade association, said the proposed business taxes probably would not affect him personally.
Since his agency is nonprofit, it would not be hit by a gross receipts or net profits tax.
In general, he said, consumers may see a slight rise in some costs but since most things are regionally priced, there would be only a small increase, if that much.
Sen. Bernice Mathews, D-Sparks, operates a concession with her daughter at Reno-Tahoe International Airport and has other small businesses. She said she doesn't know how the proposed taxes would affect her.
"I don't have a clue because there's no number yet," she said.
A gross receipts and a net profits tax would hurt her businesses, she said.
Sen. Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, is the general manager of a radio station in Fallon that is owned by his wife and her brother.
He said the payroll tax may impact the business, which has four employees. He said he sees little if any effect on him personally. But it would depend on what exemptions are given in a profits or gross business tax, he said.
His business, like others, could come under the exemption level, he said.
Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, is a retired Nevada Test Site worker who said that while he would not pay any of the specific business taxes, he would be subject to significant increases in the cost of things he buys.
"Of course, any type of tax would of course impact me," he added.
Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, a real estate agent, said the real estate tax may mean less of a commission for him when he makes a sale.
Buyers and sellers like to negotiate the commission and the fees, so he may find himself absorbing some of the tax, he said.
He also is a part-time teacher at the Community College of Southern Nevada, which relies on state funding.
Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, is a retired business owner who has run a hotel and Christian supply centers. She did not return messages left by the Sun. She did not cast a vote last month when the Senate voted 15-5 to approve a tax bill. The Assembly did not approve the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, is a partner of Jones Vargas, one of the state's largest law firms, and he sits on boards of directors on several large corporations, including gaming and health care.
Reached after a lengthy meeting of the legislative leadership, Raggio declined to estimate how the proposed taxes could affect him personally.
Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, said he gets about half of his income from teaching at the University of Nevada dental school, the other half from his private practice.
Because he has no employees, he wouldn't pay a payroll tax, and the effect of any tax on him would depend on where the exemption is set, he said. As a doctor, he could see a professional services tax or a business tax that would affect his business.
Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, hopes none of the proposed taxes on the table affect him because he hopes to get the approach changed.
The Northern Nevada rancher has an amendment ready that would increase the state's sales tax by 0.5 percent and get rid of the gross-receipts, room, sin and real-estate transfer taxes, he said. He and Sen. Randolph Townsend are just looking for a way to introduce it, he said.
He said that failing that, "the payroll tax would be acceptable. The gross receipts tax I would object to, and any cousin of that."
Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, works in real estate with his wife and has a brother and a brother-in-law who are also in real estate -- so his family will feel taxes related to that business and other business taxes, he said.
His family is prepared to pay these taxes to obtain the services people need in Southern Nevada, he said.
"The property transfer tax affects home sellers and buyers ... but I think we're all going to pay a little more ... to enjoy the quality of life we need," he said.
Schneider, who considers himself "kind of a wine connoisseur," said he also would feel the so-called sin tax.
"But that's discretionary income, and I'm willing to pay a quarter more on a bottle of wine for better education and health care," he said.
Sen. Raymond Shaffer, R-North Las Vegas, is retired. He voted for the Senate tax plan. He did not return messages from the Sun on Friday.
Sen. Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, owns a corporation that employs only her. She now pays $100 a year head tax. If the gross receipts tax is passed, she estimated she would pay $3,000 a year on her technology consulting business.
"I would be paying the government a check before I get a profit," she said.
The payroll tax would be better for her, said Tiffany, who voted against tax plans. She might only pay an extra $200 a year.
Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, is a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where her husband, Thomas Wright, is a history professor. Neither owns a business, she said.
Titus predicted they may feel a "trickle down" effect of the taxes if businesses increase their prices. Other than that, she doesn't see much impact.
"If you don't smoke or drink or go see Celine Dion, you won't be paying anything," she said.
Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, says he and his partners own three companies involved in retail services, animal pet product sales and business consulting.
He said the uncapped payroll tax would affect his companies the most because, although there are only about 60 employees, they are well paid.
An uncapped payroll tax, which would allow the percentage to be applied to the total salary, would hit his company harder than a net profits or gross receipts, he said.
But he added that he and his partners favor an uncapped payroll tax.
His wife is in real estate but the transfer tax is paid usually by the seller, not the agent or broker, he said.
Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, said the proposed payroll tax would probably cost his church about $1,500 a year.
Washington is pastor of the Center of Hope Christian Fellowship, a Pentacostal church in Sparks, which has five employees including himself.
He also said an entertainment tax could take some profits from bake sales at the church.
But Washington, who voted against the tax plan, said the biggest impact of any tax increases will be in church donations, because the general public will have less to donate.
"Ultimately all taxes are passed on to the consumers. It hits us all," Washington said.
Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, is a consultant, author and speaker. She voted against the Senate tax plan. She did not return messages from the Sun.
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