Gov. Jim Gibbons insists on keeping the state business tax at 0.63 percent rather than letting it rise to 0.65 percent, as it would automatically under current law.On one level, the most obvious reaction to this result is "duh." Gibbons has been nothing if not consistent on this point: he doesn't think tax increases of any kind are permissible. So an increase in the payroll tax from 0.63 to 0.64 is just as impossible as, say, introducing a broad-based personal income tax. But this standoff does illustrate just how fundamentally silly the "pledge" approach to fiscal policy is. At the end of the day, what makes a good lawmaker is the ability to evaluate policy choices honestly, one by one. Implicit in Gibbons' unwillingness to accept this tiny tax hike is that once you allow this, the flood gates will open and Nevada will turn into, well, California in terms of tax climate. His oh-so-strict adherence to a simple rule-- no tax increases of any kind-- turns a policy molehill into a mountain and strands budget negotiations over the tiniest tax hike imaginable.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had reached a compromise on the budget that included allowing the tax rate to rise to 0.64 percent for one year, but Gibbons rejected it, Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said late Monday.
Lawmakers don't always live up to our trust in them, to be sure. But that just means they're about as reliable as any other humans we interact with from day to day. We wouldn't reward our loved ones or co-workers for refusing to rationally consider the choices they face every day-- so why would anyone consider the "no tax pledge" something to be admired, emulated, or rewarded?
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