Lawmakers”mandate’ for higher taxes

Last year's election was a mandate for massive tax increases and a repudiation of the no-tax-hikes mantra that landed the GOP's Jim Gibbons in the governor's mansion. Legislative incumbents and challengers roundly dismissed Gibbons for sticking with his inflexible approach to budgeting amid a worsening recession, and they built their 2008 campaigns around calls for taxing anything that moved.

Who will soon forget the inspirational campaign signs of Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley ("Through the roof, baby!"), Senate Democratic Leader Steven Horsford ("Business can always pay more!") and Senate Republican Leader Bill Raggio ("I didn't stop tax hikes in 2003, and I won't stop them in 2009")? Across the state, candidates of both parties walked their districts, knocked on doors and told Nevadans they'd just have to pay more for their "essential government services." They might even have to take pay cuts or sacrifice their jobs for the good of the public sector.

The campaign trail buzzed with stories of voters weeping in joy at the sight of such courageous politicians, hugging candidates and offering to hand over their wallets on the spot.

The promise of tax increases worked for Walter Mondale in 1984, and it worked for Nevada Democrats and Republicans in 2008, rewriting the playbook for every campaign consultant in the Silver State and beyond ...

Or so the champions of tax increases would have us believe. Memories get awfully fuzzy toward the end of each legislative session, especially when big-government special interests and public employee unions start showing signs of revenue withdrawal and need their tax-money fix.

Fortunately, the record doesn't lie. And the record shows the 2008 campaign was all about falling in line behind Gibbons. You know, the worst governor in America. Lord Draco himself.

"I won't support tax increases -- not when the private sector is losing revenue and losing jobs," Horsford told the Review-Journal's editorial board in September.

"The general fund needs to be managed in a way that doesn't allow growth beyond population growth and inflation."

Horsford, a Las Vegas Democrat, went on to become the Senate's majority leader and one of the Legislature's most important figures in cobbling together the nearly $800 million in tax increases that will allow the state's general fund to grow by about 10 percent, significantly more than the combined rates of population growth and inflation.

"This is not the time to start talking about raising taxes," Raggio, the Reno Republican, said last summer during a bruising Republican primary. "It is something that we can't even consider."

Raggio didn't merely consider raising taxes -- he worked tirelessly to deliver the Republican votes needed to provide a constitutionally mandated two-thirds supermajority.

That's some mandate for tax hikes. The two men who control the Legislature's upper chamber campaigned in opposition to tax increases and then went about a months-long process of increasing them.

They weren't alone.

"I really have no appetite for raising taxes," Assemblywoman Marilyn Dondero Loop, D-Las Vegas, said during last year's campaign. "Let's look at our spending priorities and be like any other household going over its own budget."

If only households could vote for a bigger budget and the seizure of the money to fund it -- like Dondero Loop did.

"I won't vote for tax increases next session," Assemblyman James Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, said last year. He voted for all of them. Higher sales taxes. Higher payroll taxes. Higher vehicle registration taxes. Higher business license fees.

"There's no appetite for new taxes," Assemblyman Paul Aizley, D-Las Vegas, said before his election last year. Lawmakers got plenty hungry for more of your money, and Aizley was with them in the chow line.

"I don't see increasing taxes as an option," Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, said during the campaign. He eventually saw differently.

Assemblyman Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, said, "I'm not hearing a lot of interest in raising taxes this session." Plenty of interest now -- especially his.

"I can't see the people of Nevada being able to afford tax increases," said Assemblywoman April Mastroluca, D-Henderson. She thinks we can afford it now. She voted for the whole package.

"The economy is the most important issue for my constituents," Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, said last year. "They are losing their jobs or are afraid of losing their jobs." Kihuen allayed their fears -- and improved his job security at the College of Southern Nevada -- by voting for higher taxes.

Anyone who believes the November election was a mandate for tax increases would be wise to remember the Senate switched to Democratic control on two unsavory races in which the Republican incumbents (Bob Beers and Joe Heck) were trashed by a well-funded smear campaign, and the two Democratic challengers (Allison Copening and Shirley Breeden) were hidden because they lacked the competence to debate issues.

But Copening and Breeden pulled their heads out of the sand long enough to do one thing: denounce tax increases. Did the electorate put those two women in office because of some secret understanding that Democrats who said they opposed tax increases were actually -- wink, wink -- in favor? Of course not. Voters were hoodwinked. Copening and Breeden voted for the tax hikes.

Among other legislators who opposed tax increases as candidates but voted for them anyway: Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, and Assembly members Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas; Joe Hogan, D-Las Vegas; Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas; and Ellen Spiegel, D-Henderson.

Candidates opposed tax increases last year on the grounds that the economy was too weak to sustain them. The economy has since become even weaker. And now they think tax hikes are OK? The expediency unfolding in Carson City isn't courage -- it's shameful.

We can always hope for truth in campaigning. The 2010 primaries are just a year and change away.

So who'll have the courage to run for governor on a platform of even higher taxes?

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is a Review-Journal editorial writer.