Children, state government needs you — to fund the budget

The state's top Democrats need a history lesson.

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley flashed their ignorance of the Silver State's nearly 150-year legacy of caring for children when they criticized a proposal to lower the legal gambling age from 21 to 18 as a revenue-generator during the recession.

Buckley has called for dramatic change in the state's tax structure with the threat of big cuts to public education and health programs looming. But if history is our guide, the Legislature will patch the leaky ship of state and keep bailing.

Nevada relies heavily on the revenue-generating abilities of vice and retail sales. Rather than focus on a stable, broad-based structure that shares the responsibility, we treat taxes like the ultimate hot potato and thrust it upon the sucker with the least juice.

The state gaming tax is the lowest in the nation at 6.75 percent. Some insane people propose raising the gaming tax to, say, 8 percent -- the same as Atlantic City, or 20 percent, the high end for Mississippi gambling palaces. But around here it's far more likely we'll see 18-year-olds legally in the dice pit before we see a substantial increase in the casino tax.

In fiscal year 2006, the sales tax generated $1.02 billion, the gaming tax $838 million and the live entertainment tax $117 million. (By live entertainment, I mean some concerts and shows -- but not the fiercely protected boxing events and NASCAR races and other exemptions.)

Liquor taxes poured another $37.3 million down the state's gullet in fiscal year 2006. Taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products contributed $122 million.

During that same time period, the state's minuscule mining net profits tax put just $19.66 million into state coffers. (About the same amount was returned to the counties of origin.)

Sure, it's a pittance in a state that ranks among the world's largest producers of gold. Even the $38.2 million sent to the state general fund this past year is a laughable fraction of the $1.53 billion in net gold profits sucked out of Nevada mines.

But we don't want to start picking on the lowly corporate mining barons after more than 140 years of statehood. It might give them a heart attack.

So the only answer that's in keeping with Nevada's unabashedly protectionist history is to drop the legalized gambling age. While we're at it, lower the drinking and smoking age, too.

But not to 18. Any fool state can do that. This is Nevada. We have a long track record of proving we do foolish right.

Let's lower the gambling age to 12, an age when kids still get their times tables confused. The slow students ought to be real suckers in the blackjack pit.

Why, I can almost hear the jingle of lunch money flowing into the state's general fund now.

Using this prevailing logic, let's lower the drinking age to 12 for beer and wine, 14 for the hard stuff. After all, if you're old enough to gamble, you're old enough to drown your sorrows over all the cards that didn't fall your way.

Goodbye milk money, hello increased liquor taxes.

The next idea gives me some concern because I'm not a big fan of children smoking expensive cigars or more than a pack of cigarettes a day. While I do believe the state should help children understand the dangers of smoking, I also believe it's essential to inform them of the important role they can play in increasing tobacco tax revenues.

I suppose the dreamers Buckley and Horsford might come up with a more civilized proposal, one that changes the state's whole tax structure and finally rewrites the way Nevada does business. They seem to think our tradition of revenue enhancement is bad tax policy. But if we didn't have bad tax policy, we'd have none at all.

In the name of Nevada history, I call on the state's children to join me in telling the governor and Legislature to lower the gambling, drinking and smoking ages to 12.

Your quality of life won't improve, young people, but the new rules guarantee the quantity of life will be brief.

This is Nevada. It's the least we can do for our children, and we've been doing the least since 1864.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith/.