State board OKs $500,000 for tax study, Gibbons dissents

By Cy Ryan

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009 | 12:42 p.m.

CARSON CITY – The state Board of Examiners, in a 2-1 vote with Chairman Gov. Jim Gibbons dissenting, recommended $500,000 be set aside to hire a consultant to help with a legislative study of Nevada’s tax system and if it should be changed.

Gibbons called it a “carte blanche” amount since the contract hasn't yet been awarded. The eight bids for the contract ranged from $32,200 to $909,861.

Secretary of State Ross Miller, in moving for approval of the $500,000, said he “didn’t want to stand in the way” of the Legislature moving quickly. He and fellow Democrat Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto voted to approve the amount.

Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, told the board the legislative committees conducting the study want to move quickly. A working group of the Legislature meets Thursday and it may select the contractor.

But Gibbons said it was “incumbent” on legislators to select a contractor before coming to the examiners board and asking for an amount not yet decided on.

“It’s a little premature to be before us,” he said.

Gibbons recommended that board defer the item until a contractor is selected. But he was voted down by the two Democrats.

The Legislative Interim Finance Committee meets Nov. 19 to formally approve the contract of the consultant. And it can approve any amount of money, even up to the $909,861, without board of examiners approval, said Andrew Clinger, director of administration and budget director.

Clinger said the examiners board has a meeting Nov. 10 and the amount could be approved then. And it would still be in time for the Nov. 19 Interim Finance Committee.

The study was approved by the 2009 Legislature, which had to raise taxes to fund services and reduce government programs. It will review proposals for “broad based taxes which are fair and equitable” and it will look at improving public services.

The report of the consultant is due in July next year.

After the meeting Gibbons questioned why the state would spend $500,000 to come up with “a pre disposed conclusion.” He said there would be a recommendation for a broad-based tax.

He said it might be for an income tax as other states have. He “totally disagrees” with installing a broad-based tax, he said.

“We don’t have a tax problem,” he said. “We have a spending problem.”

The resolution calling for the tax study was sponsored by Las Vegas Democrats Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford and Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera.