Businesses mixed on session’s results

Kevin Rademacher, Liz Benston and Michelle Swafford

Thursday, June 9, 2005 | 11:11 a.m.

While most business organizations are still assessing the results of the recently adjourned legislative session, both venom and victories were visible as the smoke cleared.

Early on in the session, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce had mixed reaction to the outcome of the property tax battle. While it hailed the Legislature's move to cap property tax increases for businesses at 8 percent, there was frustration over the split roll created by giving all owner-occupied property a 3 percent cap.

By session's end, however, the chamber was more positive about the subsequent battles.

"Overall the session ended better than it started," said Christina Dugan, government affairs director for the chamber.

Dugan was particularly pleased with a successful effort to turn back proposals to raise the state's minimum wage.

"We were able to forestall the minimum wage increase, at least until we have a chance to educate voters," she said.

Now voters in November 2006 will decide on a proposed constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage by $1 and also give employees in private business a cost of living increase every year up to $3. Voters in 2004 overwhelmingly approved the proposal.

The chamber also hailed the passage of a bill designed to give the smallest Southern Nevada businesses the opportunity to provide health insurance coverage to their employees. That bill will use surplus federal funds that the state received to create Nevada Check Up to subsidize insurance plans for businesses with between two and 50 employees.

Dugan also said the chamber was supportive of the governor's rebate, and happy with the reduction of the payroll tax rate from 0.65 percent to 0.63 percent.

That reduction, however, was a further irritation to Nevada bankers.

While they were successful in getting relief on the 2003 Legislature's per-branch tax of $7,000 a year, they had been fighting the have their payroll tax of 2 percent reduced to the level other businesses are paying.

"We are truly paying in excess of three times what other businesses are paying," said Bill Uffelman, chief executive of the Nevada Bankers Association. "This (decrease for other businesses) just increases that unfair disparity."

The per-branch excise fee was waived for one branch, per bank, per county, giving relief to rural branches that often operate on narrow margins, Uffelman said. He said easing the branch tax is expected to affect about 75 branches at a cost to the state coffers of about $500,000 out of the roughly $3 million annually that the 2003 measure was generating.

Uffelman said the effort to get equality in the payroll tax during the next Legislature has already begun.

"The 2007 session campaign -- let's see the session was out about 12:30 -- it began about 12:45," Uffleman said.

The outcome of two casino-related bills were mixed for the gaming industry.

A bill that aimed to further restrict where neighborhood casinos could be built was killed by Assembly Democrats to the disappointment of gaming companies including Station Casinos Inc., a primary supporter.

The controversial bill initially proposed to increase distance requirements between off-Strip casinos and homes, schools and churches but was replaced with the requirement that casinos only be built in master planned communities. Legislators who had removed a state review board imposed by SB 208, a 1997 law that limited off-Strip casinos to certain areas of town, later tried to placate critics by introducing a three-person review committee.

The UNITE HERE union opposed the bill, warning residents that the removal of the state review panel would hurt their ability to fight unwanted casinos.

Station Casinos spokeswoman Lesley Pittman said the company believes union politics -- driven by a longtime desire to organize Station's nonunion workforce -- ultimately helped kill the bill. The union has denied such charges, saying they are looking out for residents' interests.

"We believe (the bill) amounted to sound public policy by responding to residential demand for fewer local casinos, more clarification of on where they could be built and their size and scope," Pittman said.

Separately, a bill to raise funds for problem gambling treatment introduced early in the session with the support of Gov. Kenny Guinn passed easily with much more money than initially discussed.

The bill will raise $2 million over the next biennium from slot machine tax revenue already paid by gaming companies. The money -- a fraction of what the state collects in gaming taxes each year -- would go to fund problem gambling treatment and education.

"It's our hope that these funds can be utilized in a way that can provide accessible, low cost treatment to those individuals in our community that need it most," Pittman said.

Health care also was a hot topic during the legislative session with numerous bills aimed at reducing consumers costs, increasing hospitals financial commitment and improving Nevadas overall health system.

Many of the proposed bills failed including one that would have required hospitals to discount care for insured emergency room patients even if their plans do note cover the facility where they were treated.

"It was one more time making the hospitals responsible for things that are other people's responsibility, said Ann Lynch, vice president of government affairs and community services of Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center. "That's part of negotiations. Its not something the state should mandate."

Another bill that could affect hospitals' checkbooks requires them to pay one-third of the costs associated with building a triage center for mental health patients.

While it is uncertain at this point, Lynch said she doubts the triage center will be able to care for all of the mental health patients that currently flood Las Vegas Valley emergency rooms.

Overall, Nevada Development Authority Chief Executive Somer Hollingsworth said the session was an improvement over the heated 2003 Legislature, which featured extensive debates over business taxes. He said the return to normalcy is a positive sign for businesses looking to expand or relocate into Nevada.

"It wasn't a repeat of 2003," Hollingsworth said of the recent session. "It's a solid, dependable situation now."

The session also brought $10 million over the next two years for marketing Nevada's economic development strengths. The NDA will get about $6.5 million of that, Hollingsworth said.