Tax plans

A public opinion poll conducted last week for the Review-Journal provided a detailed snapshot of the electorate's views on most of the tax increases under consideration in Carson City. One indisputable conclusion can be drawn from the survey: Voters are worried about their livelihoods and don't want to see their recession-ravaged employers hit with job-killing levies.

According to the polls, which have a margin of error of 4 percentage points, a clear majority of statewide participants support boosting Nevada's cigarette, liquor and gaming taxes. Voters are split on whether to increase the state sales tax by a full percentage point, with 45 percent in favor, 45 percent opposed and 10 percent undecided.

But Nevada voters are firmly against tripling the state's payroll tax, with 65 percent opposed, 21 percent in favor and 14 percent undecided. Voters also lean against creating a corporate income tax, with 44 percent opposed, 37 percent in support and 19 percent undecided.

The payroll tax, also known as the modified business tax, is especially cruel. By taxing employers on the wages they pay, it compels companies to limit raises and provides a disincentive to add new positions to the payroll. Businesses currently are taxed at a rate of 0.63 percent. Any increase in that rate would effectively transfer private-sector salaries -- and jobs -- to the state bureaucracy.

"The recession has caused people to rethink business taxes," said the Review-Journal's longtime pollster, Brad Coker, managing partner of Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc. "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."

The idea of taxing casinos even more never gets old with voters, even though such an increase would hurt the state's largest employers and cause further devastation to the tourism industry. Thankfully, lawmakers aren't considering it, although they might go after the mining business.

The Review-Journal poll shows 46 percent of voters oppose increasing taxes on mining, with 41 percent in favor.

The tax increase plan that appears to be emerging from the Legislature would increase the sales tax rate by a quarter percentage point, not a full point, and would double the payroll tax rate to 1.25 percent, rather than triple it. Lawmakers also like the idea of increasing vehicle registration tax revenues by reducing depreciation allowances, causing fees on aging cars to decline more slowly.

Regardless, the Legislature is poised to suck more than $400 million from the bottom line of employers over the next two years. If they think this will have no effect on the battered Nevada economy, they're sorely mistaken.