Nevada Mining can't take the heat #NVLEG

Since before the 1865 statehood, the mining industry has ruled the state of Nevada.

Miners have held sway over every acre of the Silver State (a moniker that pays homage to the mineral in Nevada) since the early 1850's, right after gold was discovered in neighboring California.

When Nevada was granted statehood in 1865, it was the powerful Comstock miners who played a major part in writing the Nevada Constitution, going as far as embedding their (extremely low) tax rate (5% of net proceeds) into the state constitution.

Mining is the ONLY industry in the state of Nevada which gets special constitutional protection in the form of an embedded tax rate that takes two sessions of the legislature and a vote of the public to alter. With Nevada's bi-annual legislature, this process takes about 5 years start to finish.

Since 1865, this mining tax rate has been unchanged.

A local Las Vegas, Nevada based news outlet dared challenge Nevada's mining industry with an investigative effort regarding the mining industries vast power over the legislative process in Nevada.

Mining is just about every legislative pocket with political donations and a roster of lobbyists that dwarfs every other industry based in Nevada........which is odd because NOT ONE of the larger mining companies is even based in Nevada.

Since 1850 miners have dug their holes, grabbed the ore, processed that ore into precious metals and then moved on to the next find. Mining has changed over the last 150 years, gone are the days of "hard rock" mining where small groups of miners cut tunnels & shafts to follow veins of ore.......now the operations are huge, where entire mountains are taken down, massive holes (craters actually) are carved and the tiniest trace amounts of gold are leeched out with toxic chemicals.

Nevada has always been a haven for mining. Nevada is the 3rd largest gold producing jurisdiction on the planet Earth.

So with all the minerals right here in Nevada, and such a low tax rate, one might think large multi-national mining companies might be compelled to locate their corporate headquarters in Nevada?!?! But not one mining HQ is located in Nevada. Some are even based in higher taxed Canada!!

One large mining company even ships the unprocessed ore to Utah (higher taxes than Nevada) to be processed into gold.

Mining tells a big story about how much mining does for Nevada, while a little of this is true, the bottom line is this: There is only so much mineral wealth in Nevada & when that mineral wealth is tapped out, the mining industry & those high paying jobs will leave Nevada just like they have left hundreds of ghost towns & open mining shafts across the state for the better part of 120 years.

So back to the local TV news station - The station did a multi-part investigation into mining & the taxes they (don't) pay. After the series concluded, the Nevada Mining Association (NMA), the lobbying association was so upset with the truth and being exposed, the NMA decided to pull their advertising (propaganda) from the station as retaliation for the news series.

Station owner & long time Nevadan Jim Rogers had a wonderful response the the NMA's recent decision to retaliate against his TV station by pulling advertising: http://www.mynews3.com/content/news/story/Jim-Rogers-to-Nevada-Mining-Association-We-don-t/mqfTax7yoEq33cE2LnOAXA.cspx

Follow this link to the multi part expose: http://www.mynews3.com/content/news/Special/Default.aspx

Loony Louie of the 113th

As February draws to a close, we haven’t had much fodder from Loony Louie during the 113^th congress, but as sure as the sun rises in the east, Loony Louie came through with one of his favorite topics!!

On wing-nut radio, Loony Louie pulled out one of his favorite scare tactics where in making his point, he trots out the Islam/Muslim boogie man.  In his radio appearance, the hot button topic of gun laws came up, and Loony Louie was ready to go with the usual GOP stance of the 2^nd Amendment being there to “protect against an evil government”.

Pretty much anytime the gun control debate comes up, one of the first defenses of the 2^nd Amendment will always be to protect against a tyrannical government, but Loony Louie always has to ad his special addendum to this standard retort. Loony Louie loves to toss in some Islamophobia to add emphasis to his usual scare’em with Muslims tactic.

Loony Louie says that there are those who want “Sharia Law” to be the law of the land in the United States, and therefore is another reason for everyone to be armed to the teeth! As always with the lunatic fringe, the only way to dissuade the evils of something is to counter with as much armaments as possible.

 

To hear Loony Louie, check out this link: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/02/21/1622561/congressman-says-americans-need-guns-to-protect-the-nation-from-sharia-law/?mobile=nc

Follow the exploits of Loony Louie of the 113th on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/407523402627492/#!/pages/Loony-Louie-of-the-113th/533869493291473

Give back here, take more there #NVLEG

In a recent Las Vegas SUN article Nevada State Senator Mike Roberson (R) Henderson, says he wants to reduce the excessive registration fees that Nevada imposes on cars.

(Sun article: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/feb/11/roberson-seek-reduction-car-registration-tax/ )

I couldn't agree more. Nevada while being a supposed "low tax state" makes it up in excessive fees in other area's and vehicle registration is a big one.

While I applaud Senator Roberson's efforts to reduce the vehicle registration fees, I disagree on where the lost vehicle registration fees will be made up. Seems Roberson and Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick (D) North Las Vegas are in the same mindset to hoist a "services tax" on the public to make up for the lost vehicle registration revenue.

This is the old "Revenue Neutral" move where you reduce a tax over here and raise it over there........so while those registering their vehicles will see a reduction in their annual registration costs, when they drive those vehicles to get a hair cut, spa treatment, dog grooming, or any similar service, they will get hit with a tax on those services...........so the vehicle owner can revel in glee that they got a nice reduction in their vehicle registration, but if that vehicle owner goes and gets any of the tax targeted services they will pay it right back in nickles and dimes throughout the year!!

So is this a win-win or just moving the tax around? It's a win if you own a car and never use any services like getting a hair cut or go to a salon.........but if you don not own a vehicle and do go get hair cuts or visit a salon you will now be the victim of new taxes you never paid before!!!

So here we ago again with the public taking another hit from the legislature while they go about totally ignoring big business, gaming & mining, as all get off without so much as being asked about paying a single penny while, especially mining and big business swoop in on Nevada minerals and cash and trot off with the profits leaving Nevada with little to show.

Are 100,000+ voters being ignored? #NVLEG

The Nevada State Education Association (NSEA) has gathered signatures and submitted a petition to levy a 2% business margins tax on businesses in Nevada that make a $1,000,000 and above.

This week we saw Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick and republican assemblyman Pat Hickey state firmly on Ralston Reports that neither will give the margins tax a sniff during this legislative session.

We should expect this stance from Assemblyman hickey, since after all he is a republican, and protecting big business at all costs is top priority. The shocker is that Assembly Speaker Kirkpatrick is also taking a similar stance and is willing to tell the 100,000+ REGISTERED Voters, that their signatures on the NSEA petition will be ignored and the petition that they signed on to support will be tossed into the trash can as soon as it reaches her desk.

So 100,000 REGISTERED VOTERS are basically being told: "We don't give a damn and we are going to ignore the petition you signed".

This fortunately is the opposite stance Senate Majority leader Mo Denis expressed during his segment on Ralston Reports. Assemblyman Denis said the margins tax, or at least some form of it or close alternative to it, should be discussed and not just ignored as it appears the assembly leaders are willing to do.

So here's a big THANK YOU to Senator Mo Denis in that he will not ignore and refuse to acknowledge that 100,000+ REGISTERED VOTERS who signed a petition that would generate a tax supporting education wasn't totally an exercise in futility.

Services tax?!?! SERVICES TAX?!?! #NVLeg

You have got to be kidding me!?!?

The speaker of the assembly Marilyn Kirkpatrick & leader of the democratic caucus at the 2013 Nevada Legislative session has been talking up a tax on some "services", which means haircuts, pedicures, manicures, and other small services that people use every day.

So this is the big idea to spread and broaden Nevada's tax base and revenue stream?!?!?!

Oh, Crap NO!!!

This theory to add additional taxation on services is nothing more than piling more taxation on the backs of the very people that can't afford it.

Where's the obvious solution of, perhaps, taxing a little of the business community in Nevada??

The Nevada State Education Association got a petition through multiple hurdles to make it to the legislature, which would levy a small 2% tax on large business in Nevada to help fund education in the state! But apparently in Nevada we can't touch a penny of corporate/business money because of some phobia that adding a piddly 2% tax will cause these oppressed businesses to just pack up and leave Nevada!!

Let's see:

Mining digs huge holes, moves mountains, poisons water sheds & aquifers, disrupts wildlife, leaves toxic chemical ponds and carts off Nevada's mineral wealth while paying a pittance in taxes to Nevada and converting Nevada's mineral wealth into vast profits that are enjoyed in Colorado, Canada and other locale's outside Nevada!! Gotta love that!!! Come in dig the holes, leave with the loot!!! Don't believe me, check a map of GHOST TOWNS in Nevada - everyone another chapter in the looting of Nevada's minerals and whoever's left is informed to "STAY AWAY FROM OPEN MINE SHAFTS!", lest we bumble and fall into one of history's holes.

Big business is apparently taboo also. Big retail has a nice little deal going for them in Nevada! Big retail can gleefully locate their stores in Nevada knowing they will NEVER be asked to pay a few cents on the vast profits that each store sends out of Nevada to their corporate headquarters outside Nevada. So while Wal-mart and other big retailers know this, you think they might give their Nevada customers a little break on the price of their goods? Not a chance!

Think that Nevada's LOW TAXATION & BUSINESS FRIENDLY ways would draw corporations to Nevada in droves in their quest for a tax free, wide open, little regulation place like Nevada............we've been waiting for 149 years!!!

Then we have gaming (used to be called gambling ;) ), who has a tax rate in Nevada that has been untouched for decades. Try to get Nevada casino's to pay a wee bit more, say 7% (up from 6.3%) and you would think the high rollers were wiping out the dice tables & hitting runs of 21's on the blackjack tables with all the moaning and hand wringing the casino bosses go through. yet these same casino company's are actively competing against one another to locate casino's in states that have taxation rates in the 20%'s, 30%'s and even 40%'s?!?!? Wow, where's all the caterwauling we see in Nevada when, maybe, a 0.7% increase is proposed???

You see in Nevada, these 3 business entities run the state (and along with their army of extravagantly paid lobbyists). So the average Jane or Joe has little hope to ever see these titans of industry pay a few dollars in additional tax............no it seems much better to pry another 3%, 5% 8% out of the public's pocket when they get hair cuts, pedicures or spa treatments.

2013 Nevada Legislature - The Opening #NVLeg

The 2013 session of the Nevada legislature is underway, what will it bring & how will it go?

The first big event to hit the 2013 session was the Nevada Supreme Court's recent ruling on a teachers union petition to create a business tax to fund education. This move by the Supreme Court takes this issue to the forefront of the session. The republicans in the legislature can't be happy that a "union" has gotten this petition this far, especially after attempts to bury and kill it have now failed.

It's no secret that legislative republicans have targeted the teachers union over collective bargaining. Eliminating public employee unions is a GOP hot button issue - (This isn't just a Nevada thing, it's a GOP crusade across the US at the state level).

So the legislature has 40 days to take action on the petition and either pass some form of the bill or vote it down and let it go to the voters. Look for alternative bills to appear that attempts to create some type of education funding. So there will be a mish-mash of alternative ideas, but you can bet, that the bill/petition as written by the teachers union will not be well received by the majority of the legislators, either due to outright ideological thinking (republicans) or fear of business community reprisals democrats).

Now that Nevada has moved another two year period into the era of term limits, the face of the legislature is changing every session, sometimes dramatically. Gone are the days of stalwart politicians (Bill Raggio, Joe Dini, Joe Neal, etc) who had deep knowledge of state affairs, decent working relationships within the legislative body and could lead their caucuses with unity.

With term limits, the revolving door will usher in new faces more often than ever. We have a new untested Assembly speaker (Marilyn Kirkpatrick) & a new leader on the Senate side (Mo Denis). Will they be able to maintain a "team" with their fellow legislators, or will there be a free wheeling my way of the highway mindset?

And lastly, will the contentious feel of the 2011 session (coming off the 2010 elections) remain or will there be more bi-partisan efforts to solve Nevada's issues!??! In the 2010 elections, we saw the rise of the tea party faction play a role in electing rigid uncompromising politicians at the federal and state levels. The 2011 session had some of those uncompromising republicans and it created tension between the parties and even within older GOP ranks.

So far I have the feeling that some former "hard liners", namely Sen. Mike Roberson have eased away from their cut everything at all costs ideology. Roberson has been down right diplomatic in public comments leading up to the 2013 session. So maybe there is hope for a little more across party compromise in 2013.

Final early analysis: The republican caucus won't be as far right as they were in 2011 and the democrat caucus will be similarly centrist as they were in 2011. So based on the early appearances that the GOP faction isn't as hard line as 2011 makes me think there might be some compromise in the 2013 session.............but as always, this remains to be seen!