Businesses may be dealing with more taxes on local level

By Buck Wargo

Friday, Nov. 26, 2010 | 3 a.m.

Nevada businesses face the prospect of new taxes and fees at the local government level as the state tries to deal with its budget shortfall.

That’s the message delivered to the Southern Nevada business community Nov. 18 by Las Vegas Sun (our sister newspaper) columnist and political pundit Jon Ralston in appearing before the local chapter of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.

Ralston said Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval is going to attempt to balance the state budget by shifting services to, and taking money from, local governments.

“Guess who’s going to be taxed or be assessed new fees?” Ralston said. “It’s not going to be regular folks, but people like you.”

Chuck Muth, president and CEO of Citizen Outreach who appeared with Ralston at the forum, said that if more of a burden were placed on local governments, it would still require the Legislature to approve any new taxes.

That could ultimately lead to the Legislature giving local governments more control over their finances, which could lead to higher taxes on businesses, Ralston said.

Ralston said there’s a discussion in Carson City about repealing the modified business tax adopted in 2003 that’s essentially a payroll tax on businesses and has been harmful to them during the recession.

Ralston and Muth said there could be discussion, however, about sales tax policy that would affect the business community as well.

The Nevada Policy Research Institute has proposed lowering the overall tax rate and expanding it to include more categories, Ralston said.

Muth, an anti-tax advocate, applauded Sandoval’s pledge not to raise taxes and fees and hopes he sticks with that.

“Every dime you raise taxes goes to expand the government, and I’m not a government person,” Muth said. “It hurts businesses wanting to move here.”

Muth cautioned business leaders that simply because Democrats don’t have a veto-proof majority in the Legislature to raise taxes doesn’t mean they don’t have a majority. At least three or four Republican state senators will vote with Democrats, he said.

Ralston said there has been two camps in the state. One group has the knee-jerk reaction that no new taxes is the solution and the other says whatever the teachers union says goes.

That lack of discussion has hurt the state’s ability to deal with questions of how much it needs to spend on education, infrastructure and the social safety net and determine what sources of revenue it needs, Ralston said.

Many companies don’t want to relocate to Nevada because they don’t like the educational system, Ralston said. That, he says, has hurt diversification efforts.

But Muth said that unless the supply of money is cut off to the government, it would never make any cutbacks. There have only been minor reductions so far, he said.

Business community helped Harry Reid win

That’s the opinion of Ralston, who said it helped the Democratic Senate majority leader win Washoe County by 7,000 voters and retain his U.S. Senate seat over Tea Party favorite, Sharron Angle.

Ralston said the business community in Washoe County knew Angle well and didn’t have a high opinion of her. Reid and Democrats may have stood for everything they opposed but it was more of an anti-Angle vote, especially with Republican Sen. John Ensign mired in scandal.

“There were people who said ‘I’m not going to allow this woman to represent our interests,’” Ralston said. “There were some thoughtful people who said ‘if we elect Sharron Angle not only will we have someone who may become a national laughingstock, but one senator who’s a corpse.’ There are a lot of Republican business people who voted based on that, I believe.”

The panelists also cited the importance of Republican operative Sig Rogich backing Reid as vital to his campaign.

In other news:

• The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors is accepting donations for a toy drive for Aid for AIDS of Nevada. The association is accepting toys through Dec. 10 at its office at 1750 E. Sahara Ave.

• Burke Construction recently started building the Perry Plaza Senior Housing Complex for the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority. The $10.7 million project is funded by federal stimulus money. The complex will have 112 units.

• CORE Construction of Las Vegas has acquired the assets of Kansas City-based Walton Construction. Walton has about 240 employees and is ranked 127th in the nation in revenue, according to the Engineering News Record.

• K/E Centers for Advanced Medicine has contracted with Las Vegas design firm Colours Inc. to complete the interior design of its new office at 8205 W. Warm Springs Road. The work has started and will be completed by late February.