Sandoval’s E-Tax and
O-Care Could Come Back to Bite Him
Most
of Nevada’s beleaguered taxpayers focus on the fact that Gov. Brian Sandoval (R&R-Partners)
broke his word not to raise taxes by not once, but twice raising the “temporary”
tax hikes approved in 2009; taxes that were supposed to “sunset” in 2011. But the governor is also responsible for
another tax hike coming to Nevada e-shoppers everywhere on New Year’s Day.
Indeed,
beginning January 1, 2014 your purchases - which are currently made tax-free at
Amazon.com - will be taxed, in addition to any shipping charges, thanks to some
arm-twisting by Sandoval to get the company to collect the tax even though
Nevada’s voters overwhelmingly rejected such an e-tax, not once, but twice at
the ballot in 2008 and 2010.
So
much for listening to the people.
“It’s
not fair that local businesses pay the (sales) tax and the Internet companies
don’t,” whined State Taxation Director Chris Nielsen recently. Except…
Local
businesses don’t pay the tax. And
neither will the online companies.
YOU
will pay the tax!
The
simple, unmistakable truth about this is that Amazon.com customers are about to
get hosed and the State of Nevada is about to enjoy an additional $16 million
windfall of new tax revenue to spend on bigger government. Lovely.
In
other news, this short blurb from a recent Politico story pretty much says it
all…
“In a Republican
party that’s gone all out against Obamacare, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval went
all in. Sandoval is the only Republican
governor whose state is both running its own health insurance exchange this
year and expanding its Medicaid program under the health law. He’s arguably
doing more to put the Democrats’ signature law into place than any other Republican.
… States were supposed to run their own insurance exchanges but most GOP
governors refused, forcing the feds to take on the job. Nevada is the only
GOP-governed state running an exchange.”
Which
raises a question…
Can
a moderate Democrat defeat Sandoval next year if conservative voters who are
ticked off at him for raising taxes, giving driver’s licenses to illegal
immigrants and leading the way on ObamaCare implementation decide to vote for
the Independent American Party or Libertarian Party candidate or vote “None of
the Above”?
Maybe.
Look
at how the Libertarian candidate “spoiled” Republican Ken Cucinelli’s
gubernatorial bid in Virginia last month.
And
as you may recall, Republican Dean Heller only won his U.S. Senate race by
around 12,000 votes last year…while the largely unknown IAP candidate hauled in
almost 50,000 protest votes. And Heller
had nowhere near the liberal record the governor has, especially on fiscal
issues.
Sandoval
is not yet the shoo-in that many are pretending him to be. With a 100,000 voter registration advantage,
a credible, moderate Democrat could run close enough to have third-party and
NOTA voters “spoil” Sandoval’s expected coronation.
Long
shot, to be sure. But not impossible.
I
know the governor’s peeps are pretty cocky right now, but they might want to consider
the age-old wisdom of not counting your chickens before they’re hatched. Especially if Democrat Clark County
Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak defies conventional wisdom and throws his
no-BS hat in the ring.
At
that point, all bets would be off.
No comments:
Post a Comment