Economic crossroads for Nevada: Taxation

This morning I received an email from Bob Fulkerson, of PLAN ( The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada), complete with an excellent, concise and easy to understand summary of the current state budgetary crisis. It’s called “Fool’s Gold. The Silver State’s Tax Structure: Inadaquate and Inequitable.”

This crisis isn’t looming, it’s already here.

Nevada deparately needs $1 billion to just stay afloat, not to mention move toward adaquately funding the infrastructure and social programs that any successful state must have to meet its citizens needs in the coming decades. Isn’t it time for Nevada to quit bringing up the rear on anything good or valued, and heading the list of negative behaviors?

A thoughtful look at the current situation should eliminate the specious thinking that so many Nevadans like to follow - that tax monies are just thrown around wontonly on bulging bureaucracies, supporting an ever growing number of fat and happy state employees that are “leaning on their shovels” - to quote a friend, rather than doing the difficult job at hand.

It should eliminate that kind of thinking, but it often doesn’t - within the media and public relations echo chamber, the message gets muddled and lost. All too often, it’s easier to lean back on the intellectually appealing but nonetheless inaccurate portrayals of stereotypes - the worker on his shovel, and the welfare queen in her Cadillac ( or Hummer. How times do change.). That relieves one of having to actually ‘find out’, or challenge their own sacred assumptions.

We’re out of time. Nevadans can no longer afford the luxury of what New York Times writer, Thomas Freidman calls “being as dumb as you wanna be.”

We need to quit blaming government for not working. We is (sic) the government. Everytime you want to blame the state or local government for wasting tax dollars, look in the bathroom mirror and have at it.

We’re to blame for not being more involved in the decision making process, and holding the responsible parties feet to the fire - and demanding quantifiable, positive outcomes.

Here’s an idea: How would you go at getting the best treatment for advanced cancer? What if you sat back and just let the local doctor figure it out? You’d be really be angry and ready to sue at the first whiff of a poor outcome down the road, wouldn’t you? But you would be wrong, for not having been your own best advocate, and taking at least equal ownership of the process.

Work the same logic in regard to your government, then. 

In the meanwhile, I’ve posted below, an excerpt from what Bob Fulkerson sent, and I hope that you will make the time ( taking ownership, as I suggested ) and read the entire document:  

Money Matters: A Vision of One Nevada

 Executive Summary 

 ”I don’t mind paying taxes. It’s the price I pay for civilization.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Nevada is at a crossroads. As we face our budget deficit and the national economic crisis, we can move forward and build a sound foundation for the state to support a more diverse economy that can thrive for the rest of the 21st Century or we can continue to hope that our one-trick pony of tourism and gambling will be enough. The goals are clear. Nevada’s working families need safer communities, sounder transportation systems and infrastructure, affordable health care and housing, better education, more economic opportunities, and equal opportunity to live the American Dream. Nevada does not currently provide these things. It does not even come close.

Courageous and comprehensive changes must be made immediately before Nevada’s current revenue crisis plunges the state into even more economic peril. The state cannot continue its reliance on income sources that rely on happenstance and fate. We need to break the cycle of investment followed by even larger cutbacks. Such boom-and-bust cycles cripple progress, place the education of the state’s children even more at risk, and shred even further Nevada’s few safety nets. A modern economy needs a diverse, well educated workforce; it needs a modern transportation and communication infrastructure and it needs stability. Cutting spending is rarely an adequate answer. Nevada doesn’t have a spending problem. It has an income problem. Its tax system is structurally unsound. The foundation of our state is broken and cannot support what our citizens need.

The problem goes beyond the amount of funding available. We do not fund what is essential for our citizens, our businesses or our future. Our state tax system is fundamentally unfair. Those who can least afford to pay wind up paying more. People and businesses who can most afford to pay are shielded from meaningful taxation. The poorest 20 percent of Nevadans pay taxes eight times higher than does, for instance, the mining industry.

The measure of a decent society is how it treats its most vulnerable members and the extent to which it offers real opportunity for the future. Nevada treats them shamefully, overtaxing and under-servicing them. It has historically ranked at or near the bottom when it comes to funding education and providing social services, and recent figures confirm it continues to dwell at the bottom in school graduation rates, immunization rates, and literacy rates, among other areas. In many indicators, it is the only non-Southern state to rate so low.

Nevada has been hit with a budget shortfall of over $1.5 billion dollars. It needs more than $1 billion dollars just to stay afloat. The projected budget shortfall for the next biennium is even higher at $2.5 billion. Further cuts in education, human services, and public safety will only harm Nevada’s citizens and its economy more. An equitable and reliable tax system is not only desirable; it is an absolute necessity.

A SYSTEM OF TAXATION SHOULD:

(1) be fair in assessing tax burden on individuals and companies and effecient in minimizing the impact (or not having an ureasonable impact) on important production and investment decisions;

(2) be responsive to growth in the economy;

(3) generate stable and consistent revenues;

(4) be transparent and accountable to reduce error and instill public confidence; and

(5) generate sufficient revenue to meet identified needs and priorities and normal growth in costs

 Adapted from “current Realities of Local/State Government Funding in Nevada: A Briefing to Identify Future Direction,” by Dr. Robert Ginsburg.