UNLV professor submits low bid for Nevada tax study

AP Photo/Brad Horn, Nevada Appeal

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford and Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, discuss amendments to a Senate bill before voting on Friday, May 22. The two are members of the Legislative Interim Finance Committee.

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009 | 2:38 p.m.

Sun politics coverage

Panel to suggest changes to Nevada’s tax system (9-21-09)
A tax system by default, not by plan (1-25-09)

CARSON CITY – An economics professor at UNLV has submitted a low bid of $32,200 to be the consultant to a legislative committee studying ways to guide Nevada away from its boom and bust cycle of taxation.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Center for Regional Studies at the University of Nevada Reno submitted the highest bid of $909,861 to help with the research to devise a stable tax system to fund essential programs related to education, health and human services and public safety.

There were six other bids from private companies. A working group of the Legislature will select the winner Oct. 15. And the group is recommending that $500,000 be set aside in the contingency fund to pay for the state.

Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, the chairman of this group, said the Legislative Interim Finance Committee will make the final decision on how much to spend and it could be more than $500,000.

The study was approved by the 2009 Legislature, which had to raise taxes to fund the services and reduce government programs.

The study will review proposals for “broad based taxes which are fair and equitable.” And it will “examine strategies for mitigating tax burdens on both businesses and consumers, including reductions, if possible in existing taxes, both state and local.”

Bids to become the consultant were submitted by Bill Robinson of UNLV for $32,200; Willdan Financial Services of Sacramento, Calif., at $153,205; Moody’s Analytics of West Chester, Pa., at $253,000; Economic & Planning Systems Inc., of Berkeley, Calif. at $295.350; John P. Johns, a CPA of Davis, Calif. at $444,000; Nevada Consultants Inc., of Las Vegas at $500,000; the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability of Chicago at $544,082 and the Center For Regional Studies at UNR at $909,861.

Only Willdan and Moody’s submitted detailed breakdowns of how the money would be spent. The legislative group ordered its staff to get this information from each of the applicants. None would be allowed to change the total amount of their bid.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, moved to disqualify Nevada Consultants Inc., on grounds it failed to provide the project work plan and the timeline in its bid. He called it a “material weakness” in the presentation.

Horsford also complained Nevada Consultants only outlined that it would have 80 percent of the contract money spent by next April, not how much work was completed by then.

But Suzanne Nounna, president of Nevada Consultants, told the legislative group her company has five people who have been in the state for a long time, including a tax lawyer, two CPAs and a financial analyst.

She challenged Horsford’s statement there was a “material weakness” in the bid.

Horsford’s motion lost on a 3-5 vote.

The recommendations of this group will be presented to a subcommittee of the Legislative Interim Finance Committee. The subcommittee will then outline its findings to the interim finance committee, which in turn will send its recommendations to the governor for presentation to the 2011 Legislature.

Also to be appointed is a “Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group” that will develop 5-, 10- and 20-year strategic plans for improving the state’s quality of life.

Discussion: 8 comments so far…

By afveteran

10/7/09 at 3:35 p.m.

Suggest removal

Who would pay anyone 32,000 dollars to be told "quit taxing and spending and you'll come in under budget"?
How hard is that?
By Nevada_Scandalmonger

10/7/09 at 3:52 p.m.

Suggest removal

Let me see if I understand afveteran's position. The plan is to have no taxes and no state spending--the standard definition of "quit"? So the great rightwing plan is simply to have no state? Then what, sell the land to Utah?
By ynotjohn

10/7/09 at 4:20 p.m.

Suggest removal

How about an equitable spend study? Have spending automatically adjust every government salary by the % increase or decrease of the tax receipts from the previous year and all benefits paid by the worker.
By ynotjohn

10/7/09 at 4:22 p.m.

Suggest removal

Remove a layer of government would assist in meeting budget goals either by removing county or city government.
By term25600

10/7/09 at 4:24 p.m.

Suggest removal

I am sure government would just like to debit each persons bank account as they wanted in order to balance their budget. Why go through a process of taxing this and that when you can just charge each person a fixed amount regardless of their activities? No boom or bust cycles there.

How about a really innovate idea. Let government compete for money like ANY other business has to- through offering the citizens superior service. I bet all of a sudden there would be a lot more accountability in government. Personally I would pay for the services I thought were done well and I wanted, and not pay for the others. Kind of like what I do when I go to buy food. Pick the store, pick the food you want, and there you go.

With everyone scrambling to make their payments and worrying about losing their jobs, it really upsets me that government expects that THEY are exempt from reality and should be funded regardless.

I think that they are paying now for the greed of the existing system. They wanted to take advantage of people making MORE money, but they dont want to make less if people make less.
By afveteran

10/7/09 at 8:11 p.m.

Suggest removal

Comments made here previously indicate a lack of financial 101 knowledge. The word is "budget". You stick with the budget, then if you exceed it, you shut down the outgo, since it will be a zero. Budgets fix many things. In private life, in business, and government should be no different.
By hss46

10/8/09 at 8:41 a.m.

Suggest removal

You conservatives should start writing for Colbert because your posts are truly hilarious, or is it sad. Why do so many people use "anti-government" mythology as camouflage for their own selfishness. If you don't want to pay taxes, be honest say:

"I want to keep what I earn. I don't want to pay for other peoples' children to get a good education, or for minimum wage earners to get ER medical services. I don't care if that kind of society produces no good jobs and results in lots of crime as long as I don't have to contribute to the cost of making other peoples' lives better."

I admit that I'm a bleeding heart, dyed in the wool, tax and spend, unapologetic liberal who thinks the people of Nevada should pay way more tax than they do (the currently pay the least of any state as a percentage of their per capita income) so we can have better schools, better services for the indigent, better medical care even for undocumented workers and on and on.
By Patrick_R_Gibbons

10/8/09 at 4:37 p.m.

Suggest removal

Hss,

Don't be such a dogmatist. 1) Not wanting to pay taxes doesn't mean you're selfish. 2) Paying taxes doesn't mean you care. 3) People can't want a tax reduction because government isn't very good at providing most of the services it tries to provide.