Editorial: Not in the public’s interest

Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

For years the Nevada Tax Commission has been handing out tax rebates behind closed doors to its friends in big business. As reported Sunday by Jeff German and Steve Kanigher in the Las Vegas Sun, the commission has avoided much scrutiny by interpreting state law to allow it to hide the details of the actions it takes after kicking the public out of its meetings.

That was the case when it gave Southern California Edison a $40 million rebate in 2005. The commission has never detailed its actions and never publicly disclosed the amount of the rebate. The amount was ferreted out by Cy Ryan, the Sun's Carson City bureau chief.

Why the secrecy? Whose interests are they watching out for?

Commissioner George Kelesis, a lawyer and businessman, told the Sun that wealthy taxpayers who can spend money on lawyers to press their cases "will obviously have influence on the end result."

"Right now, there's no one representing the interests of the little guy through the process," Kelesis said.

Representation shouldn't matter. The Tax Commission should be making sure that people and businesses are taxed fairly, regardless of whether they can hire big-time attorneys. The commission would go a long way toward demonstrating that fairness by opening up its process to the public and detailing what it did and why it did it.

The commission aggressively lobbied against a bill that became law this year, requiring it to operate with more transparency. The commission is now slowly writing regulations to comply and is planning to hold a workshop on the subject this year. When it will finish is another matter. As reported by the Sun, the commission has yet to comply with a legislative mandate from 1997.

It is simply ridiculous that the commission gets away with making decisions affecting millions of dollars of public money in private and refusing to divulge details. That is not acceptable for city councils and it is not acceptable for the Legislature. There is no reason the Tax Commission should be any different.