Here’s your mandate: get things done

Republicans elected in November’s GOP landslide believe they have a mandate. But the nature of that mandate depends on which Republican you’re talking to.

That context is important heading into Monday’s start of the 2015 Legislature. Gov. Brian Sandoval’s $7.3 billion budget for 2015-17 already has created sharp divisions among his fellow Republicans, especially in the Assembly. The new GOP majorities in both houses do not guarantee Sandoval the support he needs for the more than $1 billion in proposed new taxes that prop up his spending plan.

GOP candidates were all over the board on a number of issues last year, especially tax increases. Some Republicans ran hard-line campaigns against all potential tax hikes. Some openly called for tax increases. Some were squishy, expressing support for improved K-12 education spending without saying how they’d pay for it. And the governor, while not declaring “I will raise your taxes!” in stump speeches, TV ads and mailers, was open about wanting sizable new spending on education and a reformed tax structure.

Of course, Sandoval didn’t run on a specific tax-increase plan because Democrats didn’t run a viable candidate against him. It was that lack of a Democratic standard-bearer on the 2014 ballot, that lack of a candidate capable of presenting a countering vision and challenging GOP philosophies, that helped lock up last year’s Republican rout.

The political challenges Sandoval faces this session aren’t rooted entirely in his call for higher taxes (although some GOP lawmakers will vote against all tax increases, no exceptions). They’re rooted in the tax policy he has proposed: a progressive business license fee based on gross receipts.

Sandoval unveiled the specifics of his plan last week, with different rates for different industries. It has left a lot of business owners feeling duped — and a lot of Republican lawmakers nervous.

Republican candidates were united on a single issue last year: opposition to Question 3, the 2 percent margins tax placed on the ballot by the teachers unions. Sandoval led the charge against a levy based on gross revenue that would have hit even money-losing companies. Now, after voters rejected Question 3 by a 79-21 margin, Sandoval is proposing a levy based on gross revenue that hits even money-losing companies.

In a Friday meeting with the Review-Journal’s editorial board, Sandoval defended the new business license fee, which would net the state a projected $438 million over two years. He said it is the fairest, simplest, broadest way to immediately collect new revenue. Four out of five businesses do not pay the state’s payroll tax, he said, but the business license fee hits all companies — no exemptions. And the state can’t immediately extend the sales tax to services because there’s no industry data upon which to base revenue projections and create an accurate budget, he said.

Nonetheless, many of Sandoval’s allies in the fight against Question 3 say he has created “Question 3 light.” Sandoval counterpunched Friday by pointing out that in campaigning against Question 3 with industry leaders, he was told time and again that businesses were willing to pay higher taxes to improve K-12 education — just not at the rate imposed by Question 3. Sandoval said that under his new business license fee, some industries will be taxed one-twentieth of what Question 3 would have charged.

“The rates aren’t even close,” Sandoval said.

So Sandoval has a mandate to improve public education by raising taxes on businesses. Republican lawmakers who campaigned on a promise to oppose all tax increases have their own mandate. And some GOP lawmakers have a mandate to increase K-12 spending, somehow, some way.

“Being a candidate and governing are two very different things,” Sandoval said Friday. “A lot of people ran on different things. As they start to learn the budgeting process, they’re going to hear the issues, and that may change the calculus a bit.”

Recall that during the 2014 campaign, Senate Republican leader Michael Roberson and his two hand-picked candidates in swing races, Becky Harris and Patricia Farley, openly supported increased mining taxes to better support public schools. They didn’t mince words: Schools needed more money. And they won their Republican primaries against hard-line fiscal conservatives.

But they ran against Question 3, too.

Which mandate will win? I won’t dare make that prediction. But Republicans would be wise to remember one more important mandate that helped put them in power, resulting from years of Democratic leadership failures in the Legislature: the mandate to get something done.

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s senior editorial writer. Follow him on Twitter: @Glenn_CookNV.