Wither Tax Reform?

.@BrianSandoval's tax extension plan has neutralized support for tax ballot initiatives, mostly AFL-CIO's margin tax. No $, little support.

Ralston said it, so it must be true?

So has the tide already turned again? Just last month, it seemed like progressive tax reform was gaining steam... And scaring Governor Brian Sandoval's inner circle. And just last week, the Monte Miller backed mining tax initiative cleared a key legal hurdle in district court.

Throwing out a challenge by Nevada's mining industry, a judge ruled today the description being used to collect signatures to raise the constitutional cap on the taxing of mineral proceeds is within the bounds of the law and proponents can move forward.

District Judge James E. Wilson, Jr., said the description of the initiative was "straightforward, succinct and non-argumentative."

Nevadans United for Fair Mining Taxes, led by conservative businessman Monte Miller, has proposed raising the state's tax cap on minerals from the current 5 percent to 9 percent.

The group is working under a tight deadline — it needs to collect 71,000 signatures by mid-June to qualify for the November 2012 ballot. If it passes then, it would have to pass again in 2014 before being embedded in the constitution.

"Time on this is precious," Miller said.

Wilson's decision, which could be appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, also allows the sponsors of the bill to have authorship of the quick summary that is at the top of the petitions waved by volunteers or workers in front of grocery stores.

But now that Sandoval has agreed to lifting the sunsets (again) on the 2009/2011 tax deal, and now that economic recovery is taking hold nationally and here in Nevada, his inner circle is hoping that any further talk of tax reform gets quietly swept under the rug. "Look here, no more cuts! No more cuts, so all is well."



As we discussed last week, it's certainly an improvement that Governor Sandoval is no longer interested in slashing public education to the bone and sucking all the marrow out of our schools. And yes, it's been quite fun to watch Brian Sandoval and Heidi Gansert take swipes at their former friends at NPRI and Muth-ville while also talking up the economic recovery we're seeing on President Obama's watch. However, we can't forget that Sandoval & Co. only want to stop the cuts. They don't want to reverse the damage done by the cuts, and they don't want to even discuss any kind of tax reform.

So now we're not supposed to even discuss real tax reform just because the Governor's Office says "no more cuts"? And we're not supposed to discuss real tax reform because our still chronically underfunded public schools, health care programs, and transportation infrastructure won't have their budgets slashed further? And we're not supposed to discuss real tax reform because we can "grow our way out" of noticing our continuing regressive tax structure that places the bulk of the tax burden on the middle class and working poor while allowing out-of-state mining corporations and "big box retailers" to pay next to nothing?

And folks wonder why Nevada's government can be so screwy...