AB 336: Measly 4.5% Corporate Business Tax should be a no-brainer

According to freshman Nevada Assemblywoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson, D-Reno, a bill calling for a mere 4.5 percent tax on companies that make a profit of $500,000 or more a year would enact a lower tax rate than that of surrounding states. She’s talking about Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce’s AB 336.

Of course the ‘other side’ ( Assemblyman Pete Livermore, R-Carson City ) was quick to point out that any sort of leftysocialistantibusiness tax on business will kill an economic recovery and jobs, jobs, jobs! What they never follow this up with are any facts or figures to support how not having a corporate business tax in Nevada hasn’t managed to diversify or strengthen the Nevada economy up till now - thus avoiding the horrible fiscal mess we currently find ourselves in.

It might also be prudent to note that even if Nevada were to impose a modest corporate income tax, given the number of convenient loopholes afforded the huge foreign mining companies operating in Nevada, they’ll have more than enough lobbying and Jones Vargas type tax attorney means to whittle their net down to that magic $500,000 and waltz right out of paying a damn dime.

As with mining, it’s not the measly 5% tax rate in the Nevada Constitution that mining cares about - it’s those priceless deductions that enable them to pay zero … nada … zip … nothing. And so with any other business enterprise worth it’s Jones Vargas attorneys.

You might want to get angry if you are a business that can’t afford lobbyists and fancy attorneys.

This is a given. So let’s pass the tax. Small business probably won’t be the worse for it, and if, by chance, they end up having to pay some pittance, then the state won’t be in quite so much of a quagmire.

-maven

By the way, Assemblyman Pete Livermore, R-Carson City failed the Project Vote Smart political courage test for 2010. He sorta kinda didn’t want to answer queries on any substantive issues. Here are the Contributions and Expenses reports filed with the Nevada Secretary of State’s office for Mr. Livermore. He got plenty from the Chamber of Commerce.

Unfortunately, Benitez-Thompson also failed the Project Vote Smart political courage test for 2010. Shame. Her C&E filings are shown here.

Decent person's urge to do the right thing dumbfounds other children at biennial Carson City band camp

Normally, I would put this under the Impurely Maven page with the other re-posted stuff by other serious people. However, Hugh Jackson’s comments and observations regarding our efforts to make sense at the Nevada Assembly Taxation Committee hearing on AB 428 the other day deserves a wider audience - like everybody who is not getting a check from the mining industry.

I sat there watching the glazed over looks of the Committee members as Hugh bravely soldiered on through chapter and verse of just what the foreign mining behemoths weren’t paying to the state of Nevada. They didn’t give a rats ass. The mining lobbyists in the room were busy checking their Blackberries and taking bathroom breaks. They didn’t give a rats ass either - they know that they’ve butter the right slices of bread and that they’re probably pretty safe.

I’ve tried to make the point to one and all on ‘our side’ of this, that taking the facts straight to the electorate via the public media - even if we have to pay for it - might be the only way to get mining to pay something - anything! Silly me, I somehow remain naive enough to think that average people, once armed with the sad truth of how mining has stuck it up the backside of Nevada’s citizens, might get angry enough to insist on passage of AB 428 in addition to Ms. Pierce’s other bills to take mining out the Constitution and otherwise hold them accountable.

You’d think that gaming might want to help push this trolley up the hill, since they’re actually paying a higher effective tax rate despite the fact that their revenues are down in the toilet due to the economy.

Sign me ‘still hoping for a miracle’.

-maven

Post by Hugh Jackson, The Las Vegas Gleaner

Decent person’s urge to do the right thing dumbfounds other children at biennial Carson City band camp

A legislative committee held a hearing the other day on Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce’s bill to make mining pay some taxes for a change. After months of batting their big doe eyes at legislators during romantic dinners, pretending to be impressed with the intelligence and wit of lawmakers and otherwise softening up/wearing down your elected officials, mining lobbyists used the hearing to fill the air with artificial arguments and disingenuous diversions designed to lead the committee far off into the weeds and well away from any trenchant discussion. For the most part it worked, and questions asked of the industry’s lobbyists tended to range from the innocuous to the irrelevant.

If Pierce’s bill is ever sent to the Assembly floor and legislators vote on it, people would find out: What do elected officials value more, wealthy investors around the world with huge financial interests in multinational mining corporations, or Nevada?

Ha ha trick question. The answer is none of the above.

Read the rest at Hugh’s website. The man’s trying to make a living while telling the actual truth. That deserves your support.