Teachers union and Adelson are a lot alike

By Jon Ralston

Friday, April 25, 2008 | 2:01 a.m.

The state teachers union and Gondolier Numero Uno Sheldon Adelson have a lot in common.

That may seem counterintuitive, considering one is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party and the other is the de facto head of the GOP in Nevada. But while I don’t expect the Nevada State Education Association will be moving its headquarters to the Venetian anytime soon, both the teachers union and Adelson have no faith in the Legislature to accomplish their agendas, and both are willing to seek imperfect, self-serving solutions through initiatives.

And both, it must be said, are willing to sacrifice sound public policy to serve up red meat to a populace that down the road will be begging for a legislative emetic because of the toxicity of what it has swallowed.

This is where we have arrived in the great state of Nevada, folks. An inert, inflexible governor and his timorous legislative opponents have caused a paralysis that has left the state’s future in the hands of the Supreme Court, which will soon decide whether Adelson and the teachers can set tax policy.

Calling it policy is a stretch, actually. Raising the gross gaming tax an arbitrary amount 3 percentage points, as the teachers want to do or diverting room taxes from the convention authority budget by a random amount whatever is above its fiscal 2007 budget plus inflation, as Adelson wants to do is less policy and more pap. But like “no new taxes” or “more money for education,” it sure sounds enticing.

I am not suggesting raising the gaming tax or taking a portion of room taxes shouldn’t be part of the solution. Both should be but as part of a more thoughtful, hashed out package that is broadly based and enacted legislatively, not through initiatives.

Alas, the fault here lies not just with lawmakers, who have been unable or unwilling to broaden the tax base. Don’t forget the gamers, who have been shortsighted and overreaching for decades, and the business community, which has adopted Nancy Reagan’s drug mantra and turned it into a chant of irresponsibility.

The teachers know the right answer, but they have surrendered to public opinion and turned on their old allies in the casino corps. This debate is not new, and only eight years ago, when the union was pushing a net profits tax on businesses, a study the teachers union commissioned told the same old story.

The report, prepared by the Corporation for Enterprise Development, talked about all the taxes in California and suggested a business tax here would not be anti-competitive. “Economically, Nevada is a one-trick pony,” the study found. “Most states have developed industrial policies that try to diversify their business bases and reduce the effect of a decline in one industry or a general recession ... Nevada continues to be the least economically diverse state in the country.”

There’s little doubt that study was tendentious, and the teachers got what they paid for. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t accurate, and nothing has changed much since 2000 except the political atmospherics. And the teachers are capitalizing on percolating disdain for the gaming industry, which has been hemorrhaging good will among the hoi polloi for years.

As for Adelson, his loathing for the convention authority, cultivated during his disputes when he owned Comdex and now through the authority’s competition with his convention center, eclipses his antipathy for the man doing an Encore next to his Palazzo.

But Adelson’s self-interest aside, his frontman, ex-Treasurer Bob Seale, may well tap into something when he declares, as he did this week on “Face to Face,” that the plan “is a mechanism for getting without additional taxes more money into these issues that are critical. I think it’s a no-brainer.”

It probably will be, if the justices let it on the ballot, even if sound arguments are made about impairing bonds and crippling the convention authority in the long run. But hearing Seale talk about how he realized the soundness of the policy as he listened to Adelson lieutenant Bill Weidner give a PowerPoint presentation is as credible as convention authority board member Rory Reid’s insisting that the public shouldn’t listen to one casino owner’s agenda. As if what has come before politicians adopting the oligarchical agenda from Las Vegas Boulevard South has served the state so well.

Reid said on the program Thursday that I don’t give the public enough credit, as if voters are smart enough to let their intellectual analysis trump the initiatives’ visceral appeal. Really? Adelson and the teachers are betting he is wrong.