The taxing elephant in the room

By Jon Ralston

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

Gubernatorial contenders Brian Sandoval and Rory Reid are having a lively argument over who works for the bigger juice firm, who is more connected to the banking industry and who is more in bed with lobbyists.

Meanwhile, back on Planet Leadership, there are no signs of life.

Forget the budget deficit, which 95 percent of Nevadans think is “serious” or “very serious” and only 24 percent of those folks think their taxes are too high. Those are the results of a poll taken last week by nationally known GOP firm Public Opinion Strategies of 500 Nevadans (margin of error about 4 percentage points).

What do Reid and Sandoval have to say about that? Reid has magic money and Sandoval can’t get the duct tape off his mouth.

But, psst, have you heard? Sandoval works for Jones Vargas, which lobbies for banks. So banks must own him. And Reid — he works for Lionel, Sawyer and Collins, which sues poor homeowners on behalf of banks. So banks must own him, too. That’s illuminating.

On “Face to Face” this week, retailers boss Mary Lau, one of the more conservative people in Nevada politics who has been putting up a taxing STOP sign for her members for years, startled me by saying the budget can’t be balanced in 2011 without new revenue.

“I don’t think it can, either,” Lau retorted when I asked her the same question about balancing the budget without taxes I had just posed to her consultant, Jeremy Aguero, one of the state’s foremost fiscal mavens. (Aguero, who knows the numbers, had answered, “I don’t believe it can.”)

Lau, quite honestly and candidly, said that even if lawmakers were to extend a sunset on taxes passed in 2009, that’s a tax increase. And, she added, again stunning me, “I think realistically there are areas we haven’t taxed.” She mentioned a sales tax on services, which is being bandied about in private discussions by those looking for a real solution to a deficit that is anywhere between $1.5 billion and $3 billion, depending on how you do the math, and how the economy is next year.

If Mary Lau understands this, how can it be that Brian Sandoval and Rory Reid do not?

Psst, did you hear Sandoval was recruited to run by lobbyists? They actually persuaded him to leave the federal bench because they want to use him when he is elected. But, wait — Reid was a lobbyist, too, and a lot of lobbyists work for his law firm. They might use him, too. That’s useful information.

Lau’s comments prompted lamentations from the Grover Norquist wing of the GOP, represented by the ever-voluble Chuck Muth, who seemed truly stricken in his daily e-mail. It’s awful when folks tell the truth, isn’t it Mr. Muth?

Lau went on to talk about abatements and exclusions in the tax structure that have long irritated conservatives — exemptions that are granted and then never looked at again. And Aguero made the salient point — also being talked about in private meetings of business leaders — that any taxing solution will only come “after a very long discussion about reform and government efficiency.”

As it should. Quid pro quo, Gang of 63?

Indeed, Reid has now put out six different plans about the state’s future while Sandoval has one. And the latter, with only 17 days until early voting begins, has yet to produce a blueprint to deal with the biggest issue facing the state. How is that tolerated?

Pssst, but did you hear the really important news? Reid is a county commissioner who mismanaged the budget, let children die and once sat on the same dais with convicted felons. The horror! Yes, but did you know Sandoval was soft on illegal immigrants as a federal judge and will be just as much in the pocket of Big Business as governor as he was in the Legislature? These are the real issues.

So Mary Lau knows it. Jeremy Aguero knows it. State budget boss Andrew Clinger knows it. Every legislative leader knows it. Business doyens across the state know it.

And, yet, there is no hue and cry as Sandoval and Reid don’t debate that issue, but thrust and parry over who is more in the pocket of special interests and who is the bigger liar.

I’m no Pollyanna, folks. But when these two meet in the first televised debate of the homestretch a week from today, if there is one question that is not about the state budget deficit, then we in the media are just as guilty as the candidates of avoiding the elephant in the room.