Print
E-mail
Share
digg
Newsvine
Facebook
Stumble
Technorati
reddit
Fark
twitterthe legislature:
Horsford maneuvering now, planning ahead
Senate majority leader trying to give tax changes a jump for 2011
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 | 2 a.m.
cathleen allison / nevada appeal file
Nevada Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford has proposed the creation of a seven-member panel that would prepare tax bills for the 2011 Legislature.
Sun Archives
- Plan would increase sales tax, vehicle registration (5-16-2009)
- Bill would extend renewable tax credits (5-16-2009)
- County offers state one pot or another; state wants both (5-15-2009)
- Lawmakers talk revenue: Business tax plan gets hearing (5-14-2009)
- Buckley pitches new tax plan to bridge revenue gap (5-14-2009)
- Legislators settle on spending plan (5-12-2009)
Sun Coverage
Sun Blogs
Carson City — Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford said Monday that he has given up on broadening the state’s tax structure this session by gaining approval for a corporate income tax, but he wants to enter the 2011 session fully armed to enact real tax reform.
Horsford is proposing a commission be created to develop recommendations and proposed bills on a new business tax for the 2011 Legislature to consider.
The Nevada Stabilization and Advancement Commission would study a corporate income tax, a tax on business-to-business transactions, and the distribution of property tax revenue between the state and local governments, Horsford said.
The idea will be derided by some as yet another study of Nevada’s tax structure, which has undergone numerous examinations in recent decades. But Horsford said emphatically that the committee’s work would amount to more than a study.
“Many of those (studies) have to be theoretical,” he said. Instead, he wants the commission to come up with proposed tax rates and bill drafts, and changes to the Taxation Department’s software so revenue could be collected as soon as July 1, 2011, should the Legislature agree on a tax.
The commission would only make recommendations; any new taxes would still have to be passed by two-thirds of the Legislature.
Additionally, Horsford said the interim commission, which would be led by legislators, would look at long-term strategies to improve Nevada’s rankings in a host of policy areas, such as education and health care. The seven-member commission would be made up of two members from the leadership of each house, one from the minority leadership of each house, and one representative of the governor.
“We won’t be able to move forward without strategies,” Horsford said.
Horsford, as well as many other Democrats, entered the session hoping to make major changes to the state tax structure, which critics say is too reliant on taxes on sales and gaming. Now as the end of session nears, legislators complain that the taxes they are proposing are a “Band-Aid.”
Horsford said that frustration prompted him to propose creation of the commission.
“It has become apparent for valid, logistical reasons — it takes a year to 18 months to start collecting revenue on a new tax, as well as the burden to come up with a short-term solution to our budget crisis” — that broader reform couldn’t be done this year, he said.
He had hoped to pass legislation this session that would institute a corporate income tax in 2011. But his idea met resistance from Republicans.
It’s unclear how Horsford’s idea, to create the interim commission, will be received by the rest of the legislative leadership, which was struggling to reach agreements to solve this session’s problems before Horsford offered this proposal.
Horsford said Monday he wants his proposed commission to be part of the final deal agreed to by Republicans and Democrats.
As of late Monday night, Legislative leaders still had not reached an agreement on reforms to public employee benefits, pay and pensions. Senate Republicans have been withholding their votes on a tax package until they have an agreement on the reforms.
Horsford has previously said he supports a corporate income tax on net profits. He said the “business transaction tax” that the commission would study would be a version of a sales tax on services — right now it’s only on goods — except it would tax only professional services between businesses.
The third proposal Horsford mentioned, to look at local government tax revenue, has been a priority this session of Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno.
Discussion: 20 comments so far…
Post a comment
- Most Read
- Discussed
- Most E-mailed
- Man, 18, arrested for DUI in crash that kills woman, 24
- Man fatally shot during robbery attempt of woman
- Binion’s to close all 365 rooms, lay off 100 workers
- Ex-NBA star to pay $12,835 monthly in gambling debt case
- Slot makers team up at behest of CityCenter
- “Last Call!”: Two words you wouldn’t expect to hear on The Strip
- Now, Rebels must build on big Louisville win
- Report: 70 percent of homeowners underwater
- Scuffle in pub parking lot leads to Las Vegas attorney’s arrest
- What reactions to Palin, Stewart say about society
Blogs
The Kats Report
Planet Hollywood's Thomas McCartney headed for Tropicana (5 Comments)
Elsewhere
LV woman robs Kentucky strip club, police say (2 Comments)
Las Vegas Sands' Hong Kong IPO flops
The Kats Report
Monday List: Top 13 Moments and Observations From Thanksgiving Weekend (3 Comments)
Politics: Ralston's Flash
Tarkanian: Reid is liberal, out of touch, rude, poisonously partisan and a know-it-all (7 Comments)
The Kats Report
Barry Manilow off to Paris: Two-year deal starts March 5 at Le Theatre des Arts (10 Comments)
Politics: Ralston's Flash
Ensign survives radio interview with no follow-ups; partial transcript below (6 Comments)
Calendar »
- 1 Tue
- 2 Wed
- 3 Thu
- 4 Fri
- 5 Sat
-
Grand opening of Vdara
Vdara | 10 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Dik Richie at Moon
Moon Nightclub | 10:30 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
A Night to Honor Israel at the Cashman Theatre
Cashman Convention Center | 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
-
Ladies night at Feelgoods
Feelgoods
-
Sin City Sinners at VooDoo Lounge
VooDoo Steak & Lounge
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
So they are planning to raise taxes in 2011, too!
I guess it is never too early to demand more taxes and higher taxes.
Gosh, Golly, Gee.....Democrats want to raise taxes.
Never heard of that before.....LOL.
If the government consumed 99.999999% of the economy then Buckley, Horsford and the Democrats would be demanding the other .000001% while stating the sky would fall otherwise.
We do need tax reform, and to get there our elected leaders must have the courage to slap down Nevada's business, gaming and mining lobby, whose selfishness would make Vanderbuilt blush.
Republicans borrow and spend. Bush: $6 trillion borrowed and spent (with 6 years of a Republican Congress behind him). Gibbons: take $60 million from Clark County.
Democrats tax and spend.
Which is more fiscally responsible?
They need to reform both the taxing and spending sides of their houses.
See this is what they plan on doing raise taxes, then raise them again and again. This will never stop. It is easier to raise taxes than to balance the budget.
Cut salaries and services!
Balance the budget!
Take public education on-line!
Yeah, that'll work. Online education. Your computer crashes, you flunk. Have a question, you send it in by E Mail? Learn a language without a teacher listening to your pronunciation? Take tests at home? No chance of cheating there.
LV2009. A boob waiting to explode...
It is the anti-tax extremists who want a free ride. They want roads, schools, fire service, police protection, and legal systems without paying for them. They want to live in a great country, but deride the basic protections and services that country and its constitution provide. Their rants on these comment pages are hate-filled and idiotic. Adults pay their bills, and they don't spend their lives screaming about doing it. They pay the grocer, the doctor, the mechanic, and the government. It just goes with the territory, and from the view of most of the world, it's damn nice territory.
If a corporate net profits tax helps stabilize the state's revenue and keeps legislators from continually raising taxes that are paid by the people (hello sales & property tax, vehicle registration, etc), then everyone can get behind this. Save for the few who think any taxes are a problem.
As a business owner, I don't like paying taxes. But, despite claims from the business organizations we support, paying taxes here doesn't make me lay people off or make me want to move my business to another state.
Rather, I want my state to be known as the leader in education (k-12 & college), not competing with neighboring states but competing with the best countries in the world over educational achievements. I want our universities developing cures for health related problems. Our infrastructure studied world-wide for its efficiency and durability.
If that requires an approach to taxes that is fundamentally different than what we currently have, so be it.
Horsford has talked about these same priorities openly and often. As a lifelong supporter of Raggio, and a current supporter of him still, I can't say we made any material progress in these areas. I am hopeful that Horsford's action matches his rhetoric.
LKM,
i am more than happy to pay my fair share of what the state government is required to do according to the state constitution. these clowns over the years have added countless programs that i and other taxpaying citizens must now support that are NOT listed as a function of the state government.
you ought to read it sometime, you may learn the limits of our state government, not that they follow it.
I thought the Chamber's position was that they would support tax reform in exchange for reforms to PEBP and PERS. What is being discussed now is just raising existing taxes, not tax reform.
Obviously a conspiracy lesson in premeditated theft, which certainly needs to be addressed -- Criminalize taxation and hang all these legislative hoodlums for theft and tyranny.
"Republicans borrow and spend. Bush: $6 trillion borrowed and spent (with 6 years of a Republican Congress behind him). Gibbons: take $60 million from Clark County.
Democrats tax and spend.
Which is more fiscally responsible?"
Ughhhh...the Democrats are planning to tax, borrow and spend.
You do know that Obama is PLANNING to triple the debt with trillion dollars deficits as far as the eye can see.
He may even break the $2 trillion deficit level.
LKM - you are right we all need to pay our share. And the share is decided by the legislators we elect. If you don't like the programs get out and vote. It starts locally. Look at the voting records here in the lastest local elections - they're terrible. A very small percent of the population is making the rules. If you're not voting and writing your legislators then don't complain.
Obama may well break the $2T mark this year. With half of that passed before he became president, and half the bail-outs required to deal with the incompetence of the last 8 years.
While certainly still way too large, his actual plan is to have the deficits down to $500B within five years.
Last President to leave the White House without a national debt: Andrew Jackson
Last President to leave the White House with a budget surplus: Bill Clinton
Last Republican President to lower the national debt while in office: None
Opti, corporate income taxes are highly volatile. If you want a stable tax base you don't go after corporate profits. If Horsford and Buckley know this then they are really just wanting more tax money and paying lip service to our boom and bust cycle (which is likely considering their current unwillingness to examine spending limits).
LKM, no we don't want a free ride, we want government to spend the money effectively, not just have whatever it wants regardless of the results. That means a government that is innovative in figuring out cost effective ways to solve state problems, not just throwing wads of cash at it and hoping the problem goes away. That is, we want responsible and accountable government. What do you want?
Just for fun (since Bill brought up the bailouts), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhpdUuzrw...
Opti,
Being known for a great system of higher education doesn't seem to produce results for the economy, including attracting people to moveto the state: http://npri.org/publications/education-a... (Data from US News and World Report and ALEC)
LV2009:
Your notion of getting an education online is not new; it's just impractical. First of all, it doesn't work very well. The very best programs have absolutely no recursive loops to reinstruct areas of weakness with different approaches. Not a single program out there is equipped with a backup teacher to address personal issues about the subject. As a former teacher and professor, I have had students who took these online courses and everyone misses having a person to talk to about the material.
Secondly, the programs have no link between the summative assessments and the formative assessments. Teachers can do this; computers can't. That's not to say they never will, but now they don't.
Most good teachers analyze their students for learning styles. Computer programs do not have alternative presentation styles for different learning styles, so they are less student-friendly than a classroom.
Another problem is who is going to teach children the social skills they learn in the classroom. Who is going to produce the lessons? Who would pay for it? According to which standards will the lessons be prepared? How will assessment take place? I spent several years producing early time distance learning programs; they are not cheap ot easy to produce. Also, technology keeps changing and outdating last year's stuff with new, faster and more student-friendly versions. Sticking gobs of money in an old program makes no sense.
We as a society need to continually upgrade our services to our kids. Sticking them in a computer program for education right now is not really a good option. Good teachers are worth a million bucks.
Patrick,
2/3 of the new venture capital startup funds in the USA last year went to New York, California, Massachusetts and Texas. Let's see: bad tax climates, amazing systems of higher ed.
And yet here we are with amazing population growth, low poverty rates and high personal income.
New York, California, and Texas also have become hubs of specialized industry and they probably aren't in those states because of the tax climate (though Texas isn't that bad) but because there is specialized knowledge in the region which allows them to capitalize on each others success.
And seriously, are you suggesting venture capital goes to California, because of the tax structure?
Patrick,
It really is tiring pointing out your flawed logic. Bill is not suggesting the VC money goes to those states BECAUSE of the tax structure, he is saying it goes there DESPITE the tax structure.
Buckley and Horsford just destroyed any chance our state had of economic recovery.