Weekly Editorial Recap

THURSDAY

MEET THE TAX LADY

How did Peggy Pierce neglect to include the air we breathe in her all-consuming proposal to raise taxes on Nevadans? The five-term Democratic assemblywoman from Las Vegas ... this week introduced a number of bills designed to head off potential state budget cuts. Needless to say, Ms. Pierce embraces the notion that the state's struggling private-sector taxpayers have yet to submit to a proper milking.

First and foremost, Ms. Pierce wants to impose a 4.5 percent business income tax on earnings above $500,000.

But that's not all. If you order now, you'll also get a 5 percent tax on services and a doubling of the state cigarette tax to $1.70 a pack.

And there's more. Ms. Pierce would levy a 5 percent tax on billboards, radio and TV advertising, barber and beauty shops, health club memberships, dry cleaners, pool service companies, telemarketers, storage unit rentals and pet groomers.

Oh, but lest you think she's through, Ms. Pierce seeks to raise the tax on beer by more than 55 percent and the tax on wine and liquor by 25 percent. ...

Give Ms. Pierce credit. At least she has the gumption to stand up for her beliefs, which is more than can be said of many lawmakers.

But as for her belief that a majority of Nevadans oppose "low taxes" and prefer a tax on virtually everything that moves ... well, let's just say Ms. Pierce might want to venture outside the union hall from time to time.

WEDNESDAY

VOTING EARLY

We too have fond memories of those days when Election Day was considered "a big deal" to people, as Assemblyman Cresent Hardy, R-Mesquite, noted when he introduced a bill to end early voting.

But the practice has proven tremendously popular and allows more people to vote at times and places convenient to them. There has been no evidence early voting has triggered any significant voter fraud. The same cannot be said of absentee voting, which has led to fraud here ... but there is no move afoot to end that.

Mr. Hardy declines to say who asked him to introduce the bill and is rather vague on the rationale for the proposal.

Nevada voters since 1994 have been voting in various locales in the two weeks leading up to Election Day to the point where about half of the votes cast in the 2010 election were via early voting. There were some complaints about unions busing their members to the polls to vote early for Sen. Harry Reid, but it was perfectly legal whether early or on Election Day.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax says that if Mr. Hardy's Assembly Bill 311 were to become law, his office alone would have to spend $5 million to buy the 1,000 voting machines needed to prevent Election Days voting lines from being too long, which would deter voting.

Even Assemblyman Hardy suggested his bill will go nowhere. So please put this legislation in a circular file and don't waste any more time or energy or paperwork on its deserved demise.