Friday, July 18, 2003 | 9:27 a.m.
SUN CAPITAL BUREAU
CARSON CITY -- Assemblyman Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas, sliced up his three Wells Fargo bank cards during a floor session Thursday to protest the lobbying efforts of the bank.
Collins said he believes Wells Fargo representatives exerted influence to kill a tax bill in the Senate Wednesday. Mendy Elliott, lobbyist for Wells Fargo, could not be reached for comment.
Collins said he had three accounts at the bank and that he has conducted several hundred thousand dollars in transactions through Wells Fargo.
The potential tax bill had called for a 2 percent tax on gross wages of financial institutions that would have raised $25 million over the next two years. The plan allowed the financial institutions to avoid paying the business activity tax on its employees at a savings of $6.2 million. The banks and other financial institutions would have paid $18.8 million in new taxes.
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