A Plan For Changing Nevada’s Tax Structure
We’ve all heard about Nevada’s “structural deficit.” It’s a theory that Nevada’s tax system is somehow inherently unstable, and hard to predict. Using false logic, advocates of the theory typically want to make our tax revenue “more stable” by increasing taxes and expanding the functions of government. It was central to the debate surrounding Nevada’s job-crushing 2003 tax hikes, and frequently studied and discussed by local government employees and contractors even while rapidly increasing property values generated double-digit annual increases in property tax revenue.
Check out this report/proposal from the Nevada Policy Research Institute. It concludes Nevada’s tax structure is, in fact, too volatile, and recommends fixes other than simply increasing taxing and spending. The study suggests a flat consumption tax encompassing all transactions, at a lower rate, would reduce volatility, and also recommends some common-sense measures to make Nevada local government unions more interested in the mission of government.
