Columnist Erin Neff: Tax commission forced to do lawmakers’ job

Erin Neff

Friday, Sept. 5, 2003 | 5:19 a.m.

THE KID WHO takes a paper route for spending money learns a lesson in responsibility by getting up early to roll papers and deliver them.

But that child is about to learn an early and unfortunate lesson in politics because of the hasty way Nevada's tax plan was written.

Instead of the Legislature doing its work in enough time to think out the details, an appointed state commission is saddled with trying to figure out how to implement the tax plan.

Its answer could be:

Tax the paperboys.

And ice cream men, while you're at it.

The months of legislative time that were supposed to be devoted to great discussions on how each tax would work were largely spent testing political waters. Lawmakers found nothing but circling anti-tax sharks, which sent them scrambling back to shore for safety.

Certainly lawmakers, and the governor before them, did not want paperboys to pay business license fees. Sure the state's fiscal crisis was fueled by an overdependence on gaming and sales tax revenues, but the state's elected officials never envisioned tapping ice cream men as the solution.

The commissioners charged with regulating the nightmare created in the rush to avoid responsible tax policy are now trying to cobble together regulations. They're trying to answer questions without knowing how lawmakers intended them to be answered.

We did not elect the Tax Commission and its job is not to craft policy, yet there its members were on Thursday wondering if the elected officials meant gross or net income when they talked about the earnings of a business.

The discussion Thursday was aimed at forming a clear answer for taxpayers about a tax that has already been in effect for two months.

This ridiculous situation could easily have been avoided if lawmakers had not avoided the real answer to the crisis. If only they had had the fortitude to create a fair and broad-based business tax.

When Gov. Kenny Guinn first unveiled his tax proposal to the press on the day of his State of the State address, reporters asked whether paperboys and ice cream vendors would have to pay.

Of course not, his staff said. The lawmakers will make sure the proper people are exempted.

Now we're once again worrying about paperboys and whether a family trust created to avoid taxes must now pay taxes as a business.

Piano players were let go from their jobs of providing background music thanks to the entertainment tax.

Now the state's Gaming Control Board is left to sort that snafu out.

Meanwhile corporate executives must be giggling at the scapegoats earmarked to be Nevada's responsible citizens -- newspaper carriers, ice cream men and part-time pianists.

Some have suggested the result of the tax mayhem that took two special sessions has to be sorted out by the lawmakers -- the same lawmakers who did not care enough about details to produce an answer to the most basic question of all with taxes -- who should pay.

But leaving lawmakers in charge of figuring out what they've done would only make things worse.