ANOTHER BILBRAY-KOHN SET-BACK
Remember that staged
stunt back in June whereby a group of liberal open-borders illegal
immigration activists barged into Rep. Joe
Heck’s (R-Nevada) office with a bullhorn and made jackasses of themselves
until police – who they themselves had called in advance – “arrested” them for
trespassing (they were actually simply issued a citation and sent on their way)?
Well, Heck’s challenger, Democrat Erin-Bilbray-without-the-Kohn, and her supporters had a field day
with the incident, falsely claiming that Heck refused to meet with constituents
and slammed the door in their faces. They
also continue to falsely claim that Heck doesn’t support immigration reform.
Truth is, Heck DOES support reforming our broken immigration
system, but insists on strengthening border enforcement to curtail future
ILLEGAL immigration as part of any deal.
In any event, even that lame, staged made-up issue of
Republican Heck supposedly having immigration activists “arrested” is no longer
an issue Bilbray-without-the-Kohn can use in her campaign. You see, yesterday her patron, Democrat
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, had
an almost identical incident happen in Washington, DC!
Turns out a gaggle of immigration agitators showed
up at Reid’s office to protest his failure to pressure President Barack Obama into waving his magic wand
and issuing amnesty certificates to tens of thousands of persons who are in the
U.S. illegally. Reid didn’t meet with
the protestors. And the protestors were arrested.
Not just issued a citation like the pikers outside Heck’s office. Reportedly really, actually arrested!
So now the Bilbray-without-the-Kohn campaign can no longer
use the staged protest incident to criticize Heck for not meeting with
immigration activists and having them arrested because, by extension, she’d be
criticizing the Great and Powerful Harry Reid, as well, for the same thing!
And so it goes for one of the most embarrassing Democrat
congressional campaigns in Nevada history.
TESLA DEAL: RUBBER STAMPING ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL
By most accounts, this Tesla deal is almost too good to be
true.
Uh-oh.
If all goes as choreographed, the special session of the
Legislature to approve the multi-billion dollar Tesla deal that legislators
still haven’t even seen yet will be wrapped up by bedtime tonight (more likely,
sometime tomorrow or Friday).
And again, I think it’s great that Tesla chose Nevada for
its new battery manufacturing plant and won’t have to pay any taxes for at
least the next ten years – including the sales taxes that you and I pay every single
day.
The same sales taxes that were hiked “temporarily” in 2009
and were supposed to sunset and come back down in 2011, but were instead
extended by Gov. Brian Sandoval.
The same sales taxes that were hiked “temporarily” and then
were supposed to come back down in 2013, but were again extended by Gov.
Sandoval.
Gee, I wonder what he’s going to do with those sunsets in
next year’s session?
But back to the Tesla deal…
As Las Vegas
Review-Journal columnist Steve
Sebelius wrote today, “It’s not that
the state is doing this for Tesla that’s really the issue. It’s that the state can do this at all that’s the issue.”
Indeed, where does the government derive the power to exempt
some businesses but not others? What
about “equal protection” under law?
For example, according to the Nevada Manufacturing
Association there are “roughly 3,000 small, medium, and large manufacturing and
warehousing businesses around the state.”
Those are manufacturers who are already in Nevada; many of which have
been here for a long, long time. Why tax
relief of the new kid on the block but no tax relief for them?
Ditto non-manufacturing businesses in Nevada, many of which
have been operating here for decades and helped build this state, which will still
be stuck paying all the taxes that Tesla, a new-comer, won’t have to pay for
the next ten years. Why no tax relief
for those businesses who invested in Nevada LONG ago?
And what about the estimated $25 million worth of tax breaks
being given to Tesla that are being given to Tesla by taking them away from other
companies who already have home offices here in Nevada and have been here for a
long, long time. How is “robbing Peter
to pay Paul” right?
In addition, in the last legislative session the Legislature
set aside some $80 million worth of tax credits to lure movie productions to
Nevada, the Entertainment Capital of the World.
While that decision was still questionable, at least those tax breaks
were extended to an entire industry, not just one company.
Alas, the remaining $70 million of tax incentives set aside
just last year for the film industry will now be shifted over to Tesla
instead. Again, how is “robbing Peter to
pay Paul” right?
And since the ink on the Tesla deal isn’t even dry yet, and
no one but Tesla and the governor’s office has seen it, why the rush to call
the special session today? Why not
release the deal, including all the fine print, and allow elected legislators
and the public to review and scrutinize it for at least a few days first before
being summoned to Carson City to rubber stamp it?
Is there something in the deal that we don’t know about that
Gov. Brian Sandoval wants to rush
through before it’s discovered and opposition rises up?
Indeed, I was reliably told yesterday that the Governor was quite
irritated when state Controller Kim
Wallin told the Las Vegas
Review-Journal that “We have to make sure there’s true accountability in
this deal. Oftentimes we give out money,
and we don’t get reports back.”
Why would requiring regular performance reports and assuring
accountability upset the governor?
Citizens of Nevada…beware.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“(Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) runs the Senate like a
plantation.” - Louisiana Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy
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