At odds on taxes, spending

CARSON CITY -- In a sign that Nevadans may see their own financial futures tied to those of their employers, residents decisively oppose raising the business payroll tax, cornerstone of the nearly $800 million tax package that has emerged in the Legislature, according to a poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

But the state's residents are not so anti-tax that they flat out reject other proposals, and they acknowledge there are other priorities that take precedent over protecting their wallets.

For example, by a wide margin -- 57 percent to 27 percent -- poll respondents said they would prefer increasing taxes to maintain teacher salaries as opposed to cutting those salaries by 4 percent, as proposed by lawmakers.

But by a 65 percent to 21 percent margin, they object to tripling the state's current 0.63 percent modified business, or payroll, tax. That tax is paid by employers on each worker's wages.

To be fair, legislators now are calling for nearly doubling the payroll tax rate to 1.25 percent on most workers' wages, while reducing it slightly to 0.5 percent for the first $250,000 in each company's payroll. The cuts are designed to gain favor with small companies, generally those with six or fewer employees.

Independent contractors, such as real estate agents and strip club dancers, would be required to pay payroll taxes for the first time under the bill that is likely to come out of the Legislature.

It is not just the business payroll taxes, but other business taxes that Nevadans oppose.

The poll also found respondents reject creating a state corporate income tax by a 44 percent to 37 percent margin and oppose a mining tax increase by 46 percent to 41 percent.

Mining taxes were predictably opposed in rural Nevada, but the poll also showed a close split among Clark County residents on the issue, within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

In addition, by a better than 2 to 1 rate, poll respondents oppose levying sales taxes on services such as lawn care, haircuts and legal fees.

They were equally divided -- 45 percent for and 45 percent against -- on increasing the state's 6.5 percent sales tax rate by 1 percentage point.

The actual sales tax increase now gaining favor in the Legislature is a quarter percentage point.

The only types of taxes Nevadans decidedly favor are increases in "sin taxes" on cigarettes, alcohol and gaming.

Gov. Jim Gibbons, who has vowed to veto any tax increase bills coming out of the Legislature, was not surprised by the poll results.

"I don't want to cut any salaries either," said Gibbons, who proposed 6 percent cuts in salaries of teachers, state workers and university and community college faculty.

But he said the reality of the state's recessionary economy is that salaries must be cut, or as many as 10,000 employees will be laid off.

Gibbons noted the poll backs his thinking that it would be disastrous to tax businesses more during a recession. But, he added: "I make my decisions on policy data, not polls."

The survey of 625 registered voters was conducted Tuesday through Thursday by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., of Washington, D.C.

Pollsters interviewed registered voters by telephone. Steps were taken to ensure those interviewed represented the Democratic, Republican and independent voter percentage breakdown in the state, as well as an accurate sampling of urban and rural voters.

Brad Coker, Mason-Dixon managing partner, said the results show a growing awareness by residents that their own jobs and those of their friends may depend on their employers not having to pay additional taxes.

"The recession has caused people to rethink business taxes," Coker said. "People are worried about their jobs and don't want to hurt business more since they might lay off people. You wouldn't have gotten these results two years ago."

Although residents say they don't want to cut teacher salaries, Coker said they support taxes they might personally not have to pay, such as the sin taxes.

He suspects the results would have been different if Nevadans were asked if they would pay a personal income tax to prevent cuts in teacher pay.

Coker said the survey shows most people view teachers in a much more positive light than state employees.

In comparison with the strong support to prevent teacher pay cuts, respondents by only a slim 43 percent to 41 percent margin support tax increases to avoid cutting government services, or at least that is what they said in response to one question.

But when asked specifically in another question how they would deal with state employee pay shortfalls, only 21 percent favored increasing taxes to maintain the current work force and pay.

Larger percentages favor unpaid furloughs or reducing the number of state employees to keep costs down.

"They separate teachers from other kind of employees," said Coker, noting the poll found by more than a 3-to-1 margin that education is the top spending priority for Nevadans.

"Education is the one they want to protect and might be willing to pay some types of taxes for."

Assembly Taxation Committee Chairman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, was not surprised by the opposition to a payroll tax increase.

Poll respondents "probably work for a business that told them if we raise taxes they will have to lay off people," she said. "They are scared."

Even major increases in the types of tax increases Nevadans favor -- cigarette and liquor taxes -- won't bring in much more than $100 million a year, according to Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas.

"That won't get us there."

Contact reporter Ed Vogel at evogel @reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.