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TAX REFORM AND THE TAX PLEDGE
There’s a lot of talk about reforming Nevada’s tax structure
to make it broader. That includes
reducing the sales tax rate but extending it to certain services.
For the record, such tax reform would NOT be a violation
of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge as long as it doesn’t result in a net tax
increase that takes more money out of our pockets and puts it in the government’s
pockets.
That said, there is legitimate concern among many conservatives
that even if a tax on services is adopted in a revenue-neutral fashion, down
the road we’ll be looking at tax hikes on haircuts as well as widgets.
So it’s definitely something to be concerned about even
though, again, such a reform proposal adopted in a revenue-neutral fashion would
not be a Pledge violation.
A spoonful of sugar to help such medicine go down would be a
constitutional amendment closing a loophole in the Gibbons Tax Restraint law
that allows tax hikes on the ballot – like the recently defeated “margins tax” –
to be approved by a simple majority vote.
Let’s change it so that tax hikes on the ballot, just like
tax hikes in the Legislature, must be approved by a 2/3 super-majority, as
well. That would go a long way towards
protecting Nevadans from getting scalped down the road with tax hikes on
haircuts.
See. I can
compromise.
COLLABORATOR CAUCUS UPDATE
I received an email on Monday from a subscriber that read…
With all due respect, talk is cheap…especially when it comes
to politicians. We’ve all learned that lesson
the hard way over many years of fork-tongued broken promises.
Remember back in 2008 when the late Sen. Bill Raggio verbally promised he wouldn’t
support raising taxes when facing a primary challenge by Sharron Angle…and then went on to propose and vote for over $600
million worth of “temporary” tax hikes (the “sunsets”) that were supposed to
expire in 2011?
Remember back in 2010 when Gov. Brian Sandoval absolutely, positively promised, in no uncertain
terms, that he would neither raise taxes or extend the “sunsets” (which he’s
now done twice, and will soon be coming back for a third bite at the apple)?
And remember how Senate Majority Leader Moderate Mike Roberson signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge on Tax
Day at a Tea Party rally promising “to oppose and vote against any and all
efforts to increase taxes” – before supporting and proposing over a BILLION
dollars in higher taxes last year?
As Robert Ringer,
author of “Winning through Intimidation,” so artfully put it…
So unless or until we see something in writing by folks who
supported moderate Assemblyman Paul
Anderson over Assemblyman John
Hambrick for Speaker-designate, they must remain on the “suspect list” of
Assembly Republicans who might support the “nuclear option” of siding with
Democrats to vote for a Speaker on February 2nd other than the
Speaker-designate chosen by the majority of the members of the Republican
Assembly Caucus.
That said, Assemblyman O’Neill sent a follow-up email to a
number of people in northern Nevada after Monday’s Silver State Confidential went out.
It read, in part…
Perfect. And with
that I am happy to remove Assemblyman O’Neill from our list of “Collaborator
Caucus” suspects. So the remaining current
running list is now…
Pat Hickey - Pathickey@dataclonemail.com
Derek Armstrong - derekarmstrong@arlintlaw.com
Paul Anderson - paul@andersonfornevada.com
Randy Kirner - randy.kirner@gmail.com
Lynn Stewart - lynnstewart@cox.net
Melissa Woodbury - woodmlw@yahoo.com
Stephen Silberkraus - stephen@silberkraus.com
Remember, it will only take five turncoat Republicans siding
with the 17 Democrats to elect a Speaker other than Speaker-designate Hambrick,
so the threat is still very real.
DRIVE-BY MUTHINGS
OK, I accept that someone wishing you “Happy Holidays” isn’t
an insult. But it still warmed my heart
when the young lady at Jim Marsh’s
Kia dealership wished me a very warm “Merry Christmas” when I called there
yesterday. I hope the ACLU doesn’t
picket the place!
* * *
* *
When I read in the Wall Street Journal this morning that “Taliban
militants stormed a military-run school in northwestern Pakistan, killing at
least 84 people, most of them schoolchildren…,” my first thought was, “Yeah, waterboarding
is really a bad thing.”
Not.
And apparently I’m not the only one who thinks that
way. Aaron Blake of the Washington
Post wrote today…
* * *
* *
Congratulations to conservative freshman Assemblywoman Jill Dickman and conservative Assembly Jim Wheeler, who were the subjects of a
liberal protest march through their fundraising event in Reno last night!
Leftwing agitator Bob
Fulkerson and about a dozen liberal zombies from the Progressive Liberal
Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) showed up chanting mindlessly about – heck, I have no
idea what they were whining about. But
when you’re a conservative Republican and the left targets you with something
like this, you know you’re doing something “right”!
* * *
* *
Just as Jon Ralston,
Nevada’s #2 liberal blogger-without-a-TV-show, continues to falsely advertise
on his Twitter page that he is "a NV political journalist w/a TV program…”,
former Assembly Minority Leader Pat “The
Appeaser” Hickey continues to falsely advertise on his Twitter page that he’s
the “Republican Assembly leader for Nevada.”
These guys are having a hard time accepting reality.
* * *
* *
Speaking of Ralston, “Citizen Outhouse” - when I checked his
blog site this morning - had moved up to the #2 spot (besting moderate
Assemblyman Paul Anderson by two
votes), and was just 3 votes from the current #1 response, “Some other unlucky
sap.”
This in response to Ralston's online poll question: "Who will be the Assembly Speaker on February 2nd?"
Come on folks, get out and vote. Dan and I want to be co-speakers!
Click here and scroll down the
right-hand column.
* * *
* *
Assembly Majority Leader Michele Fiore went on Alan
Stock’s program on KDWN 720 AM in Las Vegas this morning and answered
questions about the IRS tax liens filed against a pair of her businesses.
Turns out the liens are the result of an employee embezzling
money. Fiore explained that all but two
of the liens have already been settled and she’s making $5,000/month payments
to resolve the other two.
Prediction: Fiore’s critics won’t accept the explanation; will
keep raising a ruckus.
Cue Jon Ralston…
Um, maybe because not everybody dances on command from
Nevada’s #2 liberal blogger-without-a-TV-program. Get over yourself, Jonny Boy.
But at least he spelled “vote” correctly this time!
* * *
* *
Back to the interview, Fiore also named names of outside
individuals who have been actively involved in sowing discord among GOP caucus
members: political consultants Nathan
Emens and Cory Christensen, whose
rogue activities Fiore says are being funded by establishment GOP donor and
mining tax hike proponent Monte Miller.
That sound you heard was not a nuclear warhead going off at
the Nevada Test Site, but three heads exploding simultaneously.
* * *
* *
I received this from a Silver
State Confidential subscriber…
For some reason, I don’t doubt it one iota…
* * *
* *
Heard it through the grapevine: Liberal Democrat Clark
County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani
is seriously mulling a second run for mayor of Las Vegas next year.
Incumbent Mayor Carolyn
Goodman hosted a re-election fundraiser last night at Cili’s and it was
very well attended. Chris G’s gonna have
a tough time beating Vegas’ “First Family.”
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
"We do have a Republican majority in both houses of the
(Nevada) Legislature. … The Republicans now have Conservative leaders,
including the Speaker in the Assembly. This is only IF the RINOS do not sellout
and join an unholy alliance with the Democrats in order to pass Governor
Sandoval’s Billion Dollar Tax Increase.” - John Wagner, chairman, Nevada Independent
American Party
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