Nevada May Gamble on Higher Taxes
Nevada's Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn asked a task force for recommendations on changing the state's tax stucture, and now he's got them.

No surprise: it recommends higher taxes. Government task forces dominated by government officials and special interests always do.

Reports the Las Vegas Sun:

The study, prepared by the Governor's Task Force on Tax Policy in Nevada and forwarded to Guinn on Friday, includes recommendations for new or increased business, property, entertainment and "sin" taxes to help eliminate projected state budget deficits. The general fund that supports public services such as eduction, prisons and welfare is projected to have a cumulative deficit of $4.56 billion by fiscal 2010.

Comment: the "projected" deficit is based on "projected" spending and a lack of "projected" government downsizing.

The report also looked at how much federal money Nevada gets, and finds it is below average. Other states get, on average, 20 percent of their funding from Uncle Sam. Nevada gets 14.5%.

This is a problem, according to one Task Force consultant, Las Vegas economic analyst Jeremy Aguero, who told the Sun that Nevada gets less in part because it has been undercounted by the U.S. Census, and some federal funding is tied to a state's population. But the real problem, he said, is that Nevada also has higher-than-average income levels and lower-than-average poverty levels, which also translate to less federal funding, he said.

"We get less federal funds than other states that have a higher percentage of people who need those services," Aguero said.

Yeah. Okay. Higher incomes and less poverty. That's a good thing, right? Not, apparently, to Aquero and the Nevada Governor's Task Force on Tax Policy.

Gov. Guinn is a Republican. He ought to toss the task force's recommendations in the trash can, declare there will be no tax increases, and point to Nevada's high incomes and low poverty as proof the state's traditional low-tax strategy is working. Sadly, he's going to gamble on higher taxes instead.