THE “TAX MY HAIRCUT” BILL
Dan Burdish of Citizen Outreach took a quick look at AB 569 - the Democrats’ last-minute surprise (not really) proposal to tax services as part of their $1.2 billion Mother of All Tax Hikes. If approved, the new tax would add a new 1% (for now) tax to a boatload of services except:
1. Any services that this State is prohibited from taxing under the Constitution or laws of the United States or the Constitution of the State of Nevada.
2. Any services provided by or to a governmental entity.
3. Any services provided by or to a nonprofit organization that is recognized as exempt from taxation pursuant to the provisions of 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3).
4. Any day care services provided to an infant or child away from the home of the infant or child.
5. Any health care services.
6. Any services provided by an agency to provide personal care services in the home, agency to provide nursing in the home, home for individual residential care, facility for intermediate care, facility for skilled nursing or residential facility for groups licensed pursuant to chapter 449 of NRS.
7. Any funeral services for dead humans or any services provided for the burial, cremation or interment of dead human bodies, or for the preparation of dead human bodies for burial, cremation, interment or transportation.
8. Any services for the preparation or publication of any obituaries for dead humans.
9. Any services for the delivery of gas, electricity or water through mains, lines or pipes.
10. Basic landline telephone service.
11. Internet access service.
12. Any services for the collection, treatment or disposal of waste materials.
13. Any services for which the amount received for those services is included in the measure of:
(a) Any excise tax imposed in this State on the sale, storage, use or consumption of tangible personal property sold at retail, or stored, used or otherwise consumed in this State;
(b) The excise tax imposed pursuant to NRS 368A.200; or
(c) Any fee imposed pursuant to NRS 467.104, 467.107 or 467.108.
Hmm, it does NOT appear that the services provided by certain, um, working girls in the houses with the red lights out front are exempted. Is nothing sacred?!!!
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AMAZON ISSUES OMINOUS WARNING
As reported earlier this week, the Retail Association of Nevada (RAN) has launched a high-priced PR/lobbying campaign for legislation to force out-of-state online retailers such as Amazon.com and Overstocked.com to smack Nevadans with sales tax on their online purchases.
This is a tax hike on YOU, by the way, not the online retailer…but the online retailer would have to go through the hassle of collecting the tax and remitting it to the state.
In any event, Amazon.com, which operates a fulfillment center in Fernley that employs over a hundred fellow Nevadans, is none to happy about RAN’s attack on behalf of brick-and-mortar retailers such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy. On Wednesday, the company issued the following brief statement to Reno reporter/blogger Samantha Stone:
“The new tax legislation sought by big box retailers would make us reconsider our pending plans for jobs and investment in Nevada, including in Las Vegas.”
Great. More unemployed; fewer new jobs. Thanks, RAN.
If the big box retailers are trying to raise taxes on you and me, maybe it’s time to reconsider Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce’s bill to impose a corporate tax on big box retailers instead in a revenue-neutral fashion, of course?
After all, as our friend Steve Sebelius of the Las Vegas Review-Journal regularly points out – and did so again today on Twitter – the cost of goods at big box stores such as Wal-Mart and Costco in Nevada, where there is no corporate tax, is pretty much the same as neighboring states that DO have a corporate tax.
See what happens when you throw tax hike stones from a glass house?
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OLD FUNDRAISING ANGLE FROM A PROFESSIONAL POLITICIAN
The message on the outside of the envelope that landed in my mailbox yesterday was ominous:
“Harry Reid doesn’t want me in Congress,” the opening line read, with each word underlined. “The Democrat Machine is itching to destroy me. A few hours ago I spoke with my campaign manager. I was shocked by what I heard about the Left’s plans to ‘vaporize’ me.
“Please keep what I’m about to share strictly confidential,” the letter concluded, with double underlines under “strictly confidential.”
Yes, it’s another over-the-top fundraising pitch for Sharron Angle - who apparently doesn’t realize her 2010 race against Harry Reid is over (she lost). In addition, I’m fairly certain that while he’d surely prefer Democrat “Calamity” Kate Marshall in Congress, Reid couldn’t care less if Sharron Angle ends up there. Not his house; not his race; not his problem.
Quite a few Nevada Republicans, on the other hand…
Indeed, in her opening paragraph Angle claims to be “the Democrats’ worst nightmare.” Actually, many believe she’s the REPUBLICANS’ worst nightmare; the only candidate who could possibly cost the GOP Nevada’s 2nd congressional district in the upcoming special election.
And I had a chuckle over this line on page three: “I’m not a professional politician.”
Are you kidding me? Sharron Angle the consummate professional politicians. She’s been on the ballot or in some kind of elected office for two decades! That’s all she does now – run for one office, then another.
Puh-lease. It’s not that Angle’s not a professional politician; it’s that she’s not a very good one. The good ones, you know…um, win.
Oh, and by the way, if you want something kept “strictly confidential,” it might be a good idea if you didn’t bulk mail it to tens of thousands of people all over the country. I’m just saying.
YOUR DOCTOR’S VISIT IS IN THE MAIL
“The Postal Service is continuing to hemorrhage money, reporting a loss Tuesday of more than $2 billion over the first three months of the year,” reports the Associated Press today.
Can you even imagine what’s going to happen to our nation’s health care system once the government takes it over and runs it the way it runs the post office?
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May 12: Tea Party West (Henderson, NV)
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PATRIOTS VS. LOYALISTS: THE NEVER-ENDING BATTLE
Jon Ralston wrote on Tuesday the following: “One Democrat told me today he thought the Republicans here (in Carson City) are divided into two groups – ‘solution-oriented and the ideologues.’ I found that to be humorous and totally untrue. Why? Because just saying no to any new revenue is not an ideology.”
Jon is correct. The ideology is the philosophy of strictly limited government, as embraced by those ideologues otherwise known as The Founding Fathers. Strictly limiting the government’s money supply is just a means to strictly limiting government.
As for the so-called “solution oriented” Republicans, there was a name for that sort of American back in the founding era, too: Loyalists. As in, loyal to the opposition. And those folks weren’t held in very high regard by their fellow citizens. Indeed, some were, literally, given the ol’ tar-and-feather treatment. Ah, good times; good times.
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SEN. BEN READY TO BEND ON TAXES?
I have said all along that despite him signing that letter earlier this session promising to back Gov. Sandoval’s no-new-taxes budget that freshman Republican Sen. Ben Kieckhefer was NOT a solid vote against tax and/or fee hikes.
And sure enough, on Sam Shad’s Nevada Newsmaker program on Tuesday, Kieckhefer said that he didn’t see any chance for a tax hike “at this point” but admitted that if the pot was sweet enough, he’d be willing to tell folks that yeah, he broke his promise. He did say he didn’t think the Democrats would sweeten the pot enough, but he did admit that he does have a price.
So…how much is Sen. Kieckhefer’s word worth? Alas, Gov. Sandoval might just see soon enough.
TAXING THE e-CR*P OUT OF US!
Muth’s Truths reader Dave Henry raises an excellent point about the Retail Association of Nevada’s effort to tax the Internet – or at least, tax out-of-state online purchases.
Let’s say you go online to buy tickets to Disneyland. The ticket price already includes California’s state sales tax. Now, if RAN gets its way, not only will Nevadans be charged California’s sales tax, they’ll also be hit with Nevada’s. Double taxation in the neighborhood of a whopping 15 percent!!
And by the way, all you Amazon.com workers employed in Fernley might want to start dusting off the old resume if Nevada goes through with trying to screw Amazon the way Texas did. Read all about it here.
FIRST FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR!
The next “star-studded, fun-filled, action-packed” First Friday Happy Hour will be on June 3, 2011 at Stoney’s in Las Vegas from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Free parking, no cover charge and 2-1 drinks. First Friday is co-sponsored by conservative talk-show host Alan Stock and and KXNT 100.5 FM/840 AM.
BROWER’S BATHROOM BREAKS: BIG DEAL
A story in Thursday’s Las Vegas Sun accuses Republican state Sen. Greg Brower - who is running for Nevada’s Second Congressional District against Democrat state Treasurer “Calamity” Kate Marshall (among others) – of being AWOL from legislative meetings since announcing his congressional campaign. Indeed, the Sun headline reads, “One foot out door, Brower scarce around state Senate.”
Is this really a story…especially this week with the Democrats finally releasing their much-anticipated billion dollar taxapalooza? Brower says no.
“We all have competing obligations,” Brower says in the story. “It’s not uncommon for any of us not to be able to sit through an entire committee. I am here every day. I am on floor every day. I am in committee every day. I work as hard as I can. I am flattered that I’m missed when I’m not on floor. But I’m not sure why this is something to write about.”
Me neither.
Indeed, the story only mentions two specific instances of Brower’s alleged “extended breaks,” both during those long, farcical Committee of the Whole hearings the Democrats put on to supposedly pressure Republicans into supporting tax hikes. (Frankly, I think all of the Republicans should have just boycotted those dog-and-pony shows entirely, but that’s just me.)
Of greater concern to Brower’s fellow Republicans in the Senate, though, was this paragraph:
“The practice has irritated some of his colleagues, Republican and Democrats. Assistant Minority Leader Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, who sits on two of Brower’s three afternoon committees recently reached her limit and called him in for a meeting with Minority Leader Mike McGinness, R-Fallon.”
Not true, Cegavske tells me.
First, she only sits on one committee with Sen. Brower, the Education Committee, not two. But secondly, she categorically denies Brower is in her doghouse or has been taken to Sen. McGinness’ woodshed.
“It’s just not true,” Cegavske tells me. “The only thing Sen. Brower has been called in for are regular caucus meetings with everyone else. And the only thing I’m irritated about is the Democrats’ $1.2 billion tax hike.”
Indeed, considering the perilous state of Nevada’s economy, and the fact that she’s already lost $50 million of taxpayer money, a better story might have been about how Treasurer Marshall is going to be able to keep up with her full-time money-managing duties while running for Congress instead of a freshman state senator in the minority party who takes a couple of extended potty breaks.
Maybe that story will be in tomorrow’s Sun.
FOLLOW CHUCK ON TWITTER
· The biggest blown opportunity of the year, and it's not by Republicans (for a change). http://bit.ly/mHf7on
· Sens. Roberson, Halseth & Asm. Hansen among few GOP candidates with the stones to call for Ensign to resign a year ago. http://bit.ly/lcQW80
· Just told Horsford called rural lobbyists 2 office yesterday & threatened 2 take their local property $ if they didn't support his tax hike.
· Emerging details of Ethics report show that Ensign was an even bigger low-life scuzzball than I thought...and that's saying something!
· If GOP leaders had called for Ensign to resign immediately, Reid would likely be gone, and NV would now likely have two GOP U.S. senators.
· In light of today's Ethics Committee report, all those NV GOP leaders who never demanded Ensign's resignation have major egg on their faces.
· LVRJ editorial weighs in against bill to license "dieticians," with a hat tip to some Muth's Truths. http://bit.ly/ih3mvS
· RNC chief sez GOP has been "lousy" on Hispanics. Mentions NV Gov. Sandoval as positive; doesn't mention Sharron Angle. http://bit.ly/mDkhLd
· Calorie Camera: Government "Fat Police" in San Antonio schools to start photographing students’ lunch trays. http://bit.ly/jNJtz2
· Harry Reid: ‘We Need The People Of America To Rise Up’ in Favor of Amnesty for Illegal Aliens. http://bit.ly/kh22hP
· Brothels apparently not exempt from D's service tax. Move over flat tax, here comes the flat-on-your-back tax!
· Downtown gets another black eye over parking. http://bit.ly/iErXM2 Folks should come to Stoney's on First Friday instead. Free parking, 2-1.
· CBS' 8 News Now with a piece on Harry Reid's resurrection of the DREAM Act, with a few choice Muth's Truths. http://bit.ly/lyJf8A
· Ron Paul says he would not have authorized SEAL Team 6 to take out OBL and compares London to Abboutabad. http://politi.co/ijMoM0
· "Introducing Herman Cain." An in-depth look at the GOP prez candidate the tea party loves to love. http://bit.ly/m7HFG6
· Kieckhefer says he can be bought, but can Democrats afford the price? http://bit.ly/mhIkNs
Click here to “follow” me: http://twitter.com/ChuckMuth
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“[T]he debate over ObamaCare and the larger entitlement state may be the central question of the 2012 election. On that question, Mr. Romney is compromised and not credible. If he does not change his message, he might as well try to knock off Joe Biden and get on the Obama ticket.” – Wall Street Journal editorial, 5/12/11
“Back in the days when Mitt Romney was running against Teddy Kennedy as a Massachusetts moderate Republican, (Newt) Gingrich not only personified conservatism but was the field marshal responsible for its greatest congressional victory. 2012 may not be Newt Gingrich's year…but remember that the last time the political railbirds sold Gingrich short, he gave the Republicans their first House majority in 40 years.” - Columnist Walter Shapiro (H/T Political Diary)
“AB289 - ‘nothing short of an effort to grow our nanny-state government,’ correctly notes conservative activist Chuck Muth - sailed through the Assembly, passing 30-12 on April 25. Amazingly, eight Republicans sided with the Democrats in approving this nonsense. They deserve special recognition -- and perhaps a brand new copy of the government's food pyramid. Or would disseminating that information without a license be illegal? They are: John Ellison of Elko, Pete Goicoechea of Eureka, Tom Grady of Yerington, Cresent Hardy of Mesquite, Pat Hickey of Reno, Kelly Kite of Minden, Pete Livermore of Carson City and Mark Sherwood of Henderson. Keep up the good work, ladies and gentlemen.” – Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial on bill to license and regulate dieticians, 5/12/11
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