‘Las Vegas: where you can’t afford a drink’

Spending on travel and tourism declined last year for the first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Commerce Department reports. "As Americans canceled vacations, a strong dollar kept foreigners away and businesses slashed travel budgets," The Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Spending fell at a 22 percent annualized rate in the October through December quarter. "The trillion-dollar industry -- a major employer in the U.S. -- is reeling."

And "U.S. cities whose economies rely heavily on tourism are particularly hard-hit. ... Unemployment in the Las Vegas metro area rose to 10 percent in January from 8.7 percent in December as hotels, restaurants and casinos struggled with a drop in spending. Gambling giant MGM Mirage warned earlier this week it could default on billions of dollars in loans ... because of a 17 percent drop in gambling revenue and a 21 percent drop in room revenue."

So Nevada lawmakers, huddled in Carson City and seeking ways to keep up a head of steam in the Bureaucrats' Full-Employment Gravy Train, have responded by ... threatening to more than double Nevada's liquor taxes.

The chief economist of the Washington-based Distilled Spirits Council concludes that tax hike "would cause sales revenue in the hospitality industry to decline by an estimated $160 million and destroy 2,300 hospitality sector jobs as a result." The council's analysis further shows "that Nevada has already lost 20,000 hospitality jobs in the last year due to the recession."

That could help explain all the "for rent" signs around town.

"Not only are hospitality taxes on wine, beer, and spirits regressive, they also contribute to job loss," adds Sarah Longwell, managing director of the American Beverage Institute. "After the federal government doubled the beer tax in 1991, approximately 60,000 Americans in the brewing, distributing and retailing industries lost their jobs from a shrunken industry. ... Nevada could not pick a worse time to increase taxes."

Are these industry spokesmen all greedy capitalists, just hoping to keep their jobs, to keep on making money?

Sure. Other than certain elected officials, who isn't?

Or can the next thousand bartenders and cocktail waitresses -- and all the other hotel and casino employees whose jobs will dry up if the tourists stop coming -- just go sleep on the front porch of Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, sponsor of liquor-tax bill AB277?

Will the assemblyman also offer to cook them up a big, free breakfast?