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By J. Patrick Coolican (contact) 
, Charlotte Hsu, David McGrath Schwartz
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Blogs
Sun Coverage
Sun Archives
- Leader still wants broad tax (5-5-2009)
- Assembly speaker post up for grabs in 2011 (5-3-2009)
- State falls $550 million short in funding governor's budget (5-1-2009)
- Could speaker be the next governor? (7-8-2008)
The chancellor of Nevada’s university system sharply criticized Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley on Tuesday for not embracing a corporate income tax, which he said would raise needed funding and broaden the state’s tax base to include out-of-state corporations that pay comparatively little.
“I’m very disappointed in Barbara Buckley,” said Jim Rogers, chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Rogers said Buckley’s approach, which includes smaller increases of existing taxes combined with significant spending cuts, is being driven by politics.
“This is a feeling on my part, I have no direct evidence of this, but I have this feeling that she’s let her governor’s campaign become too involved,” said Rogers, a multimillionaire businessman who owns several television stations in the Southwest.
“I was very surprised that she came out so early against (the corporate income tax), and that seems to me to be a political move rather than a fiscal move,” Rogers said.
Buckley, a Las Vegas Democrat, has indicated she will run for the Democratic nomination for governor.
She dismissed the complaint that she is allowing politics to trump policy. “I’m not going to respond to accusations,” she said. “I’m completely focused on the job I have right now. Anyone who knows me knows I fight for what I believe in, no matter what job I have.”
The rift comes at an inopportune time for Buckley as she attempts to solve the state’s fiscal crisis.
Last week the state’s official fiscal forecaster, as well as the budget director, said legislators would have to find $900 million just to fund Gov. Jim Gibbons’ proposed budget, which has been viewed as draconian and unworkable by legislators in both parties. Although the deficit will be offset somewhat by federal stimulus dollars, the budget hole will still require a painful mixture of spending cuts and tax increases.
Buckley told the Las Vegas Sun on April 14 that she would not support a corporate income tax, one of the frequently mentioned ways to broaden the tax base. Asked whether she supports a corporate income tax, she responded: “No.”
“In conversations with business leaders and lawmakers, there doesn’t seem to be much support for that,” she said.
Tuesday, after being read what Rogers said earlier in the day about her lack of support for the tax, Buckley replied: “That’s not what he told me five minutes ago.”
The Las Vegas Sun then called Rogers again. Told of Buckley’s remark, he paraphrased their conversation:
Rogers: I want to do whatever I can to help. I empathize with the dilemma you’re facing. But I am distressed you wouldn’t back the corporate tax.
Buckley: Don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper.
Rogers said Buckley went on to say she would support a broad-based business tax in some form, “But I guess I didn’t understand all the subtleties of what she was saying,” he said.
Buckley told the Sun that Nevada does need to broaden its tax base, but shouldn’t use “imported ideas from other states. Nevada needs to take a Nevada approach for a broad-based tax system.”
She said the current modified business tax, which taxes businesses on payroll, is unfair. “It taxes the smallest businesses at the same rate as the largest,” she explained. “I hope any revenue we consider that broadens the base provides protections for the state’s smallest businesses.”
She wouldn’t say how she would broaden the tax base, but confirmed she did not support a corporate income tax like those in surrounding states and proposed by Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas.
Buckley said a Nevada constitutional prohibition on the personal income tax could affect whether the state could institute a corporate income tax.
However, the constitution specifically says that while no income tax can be placed on individuals, taxes “can be levied upon the income and revenue of any business in whatever form it may be conducted for profit in the state.”
In the weeks before the legislative session began in February, a corporate income tax had some support in the business community, especially the mining and gaming industries, because it could be structured to tax only profitable companies. Also, the broader tax base of a corporate income levy might prevent legislators from singling out industries, as happens nearly every session to gaming and has happened to mining this session because of the soaring price of gold.
In December, Rogers had expressed optimism that legislators would OK a plan that reduced tax abatements and established a tax on corporate profits.
“I can’t say I’ve gotten commitments, because you don’t get that sort of a statement from a legislator,” he said at the time. “But what you get from them is a strong indicator that they would support that.”
Buckley is also beginning to face questions from her ideological left. When she came out against the corporate income tax, Gibbons, the first-term Republican and potential Buckley opponent in the governor’s race, put out a tongue-in-cheek statement congratulating her.
Hugh Jackson, the state’s most widely read liberal blogger who has also done research for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, criticized Democrats in the Legislature as overly concerned with winning future elections and not focused on solving problems with progressive solutions. “But it is by no means clear what, if anything, Nevada Democrats would actually do with enhanced and enduring power over state government, or why Democratic voters should be particularly tantalized at the prospect,” he wrote.
In other quarters, however, Buckley wins praise. Greg Brown, president of the UNLV chapter of the Faculty Alliance, said he was satisfied that legislators — especially Buckley — had listened to their concerns about deep cuts in employee benefits, as the governor proposed.
Coolican and Hsu reported from Las Vegas.
Lets start with Jim Rogers and place a 50% tax on all of his income.
It's very troubling to keep reading about how the bureaucracy (and that includes the University System) believes that it is entitled to take whatever they think they need from the pockets of the private sector.
facts are facts, you need to get your facts straight. Like him or loathe him, Jim Rogers has given millions to the University system. Were you aware he donates his salary back to the University?
yeah, come on, companies all over the valley are laying people off. extra taxes on them means that more people may lose their jobs.
in my opinion, they need to hire some outside auditors to go to the universities so that they can suggest cuts instead of raising taxes.
I absolutely agree with Rogers, and I thank his honesty and guts to make such statement.
yeah, come on, companies all over the valley are laying people off. extra taxes on them means that more people may lose their jobs.
says who? It depends how much you increase their taxes. This is something companies are saying to scare us all, but it is not necessarily true.
Buckley says the state can't create individual income taxes but that's essentially what they have done to teachers and state workers with a 4% salary cut. Not only does this seem to violate constitutional law but it does so discriminately.
Any lawyers out there willing to take this on?
Ralston is the "King" of Nevada politcs, Damon is the "Queen", Sebelius is the "Godfather" and Jackson is the "Prince" of progressives - let's include everyone with due dignity and respect shall we?
When it comes to issues like Military and Veterans Affairs, Nevada has only two writers - Keith Rogers (of the RJ) and me (doing what little I can to educate, inform, clarify and advocate)!
It's all about TEAMWORK people - and we should take Hugh's comment quite seriously - nothing is more disappointing then to finally win the power and see your friends fold in the face of being challenged to do the right thing!
Nevada needs to make a complete paradigm shift - and SOON!
Typically I do not agree with Jim Rogers on much and I do not consider him to have been an especially good chancellor for the Nevada higher education system. But I believe that his reasoning on why we need a corporate income tax for Nevada is correct. I also agree with Mr. Rogers that Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley is putting personal ambition ahead of Nevada's long-term interests despite her protestations to the contrary.
Like Mr. Rogers I had high hopes for Ms. Buckley as a Nevada leader and possible future governor going into this legislative session based on her strong rebuttal to Governor Jim Gibbons's "State of the State" speech back in January. But like him and others, I now feel very disappointed in her.
Sherry "Taz" Rosenthal
(CSN English professor)
Good to see Buckley finally coming to her senses but I still don't trust her to "do what's really right" in significantly reducing educational funding.
Let's go ahead and pass a corporate income tax. It will be years before we can look back and see if that runs business out of the state, but we will know immediately if it keeps new ones from coming here.
We all know raising taxes in a recession prolongs the recession and makes it worse. Why do we want more people to lose jobs just to protect a few that don't work for the money they get now?
Here we go again. Kick the can down the road. We'll be having the same discussion again in two years. Hopefully, one of these sessions someone will restructure the tax system, not talk about it.
Add me to the list of those disappointed with Buckley. This was/is her opportunity to demonstrate leadership. Horsford certainly is trying but he has to have Buckley on board as well.
The legislature should tax corporations with profits of more than $500,000 per year.
The one good thing that could come out of this economic crisis is a diversified tax structure that funds Nevada's long-term economic growth.
I will be disappointed and angry if the Democratic leadership balances this budget on the backs of state workers.
I LOVE NEVADA! Tax others to pay ME, the almighty university employee! Cha-ching! Learn a lesson kids and become a university employee when you grow up!
I'm just joking. I do feel bad that we only have a furlough and other state workers are going to have bigger sacrifices than us.
@Wayne:
You're absolutely right. Buckley is a major disappointment. Where's her leadership? Didn't she go on TV last summer and say this (band aid approach to fixing things) would never happen again? Yet, here she is leading the charge on the band aid fix and fighting Horsford's attempts to institute a long-term solution.
They say Buckley is planning on running for governor. That's laughable. Maybe Horsford should think about it. He seems to be the only one with a willingness to look ahead beyond the current crisis.
Hey all. Today (May 7) on Face to Face with Jon Ralston, we'll ask Chancellor Jim Rogers about his comments regarding Speaker Buckley, the future of higher education and more. We are also efforting a statement from Buckley. That's at 5:30pm, 6:30pm, 8:00pm on Las Vegas ONE, Cox Cable Channel 19.