Taxes stymie lawmakers

Paying taxes may end up being easier than passing them.

The Nevada Legislature, at press time on Thursday, appeared no closer to approving a tax plan for the state than it was weeks or even months earlier.

The legislature was nearing the end of a special session called late Tuesday by Gov.

Kenny Guinn after lawmakers failed to pass a tax bill before the end of the regular session earlier that day.

But legislators convened on Thursday with no consensus, which made it virtually impossible for them to approve and draft a bill by the Friday 5 p.m.

deadline set by Guinn.

That would likely force a second special session, expected to begin sometime before the end of June when the state's fiscal year ends.

Both the Senate, meeting as a committee of the whole, and the Assembly, which formed a 19-member panel, heard testimony late Thursday on a new plan worked out by two lobbyists a representative of the gaming industry and Sam McMullen, a lobbyist for the Business Representatives Group, an ad hoc coalition of businesses formed to lobby on the tax issue.

Sen.

Bill Raggio (R-Washoe County), the majority leader, said he and Speaker of the Assembly Richard Perkins (D-Clark County) met with the two lobbyists on Wednesday evening and requested that they come up with a joint proposal.

"The Speaker and the Majority Leader met with the two sectors with the most concern about the revenue plan," said Raggio.

"The message was try to get together and reach an accord."

The plan, presented by Jeremy Aguero, includes three parts: a so-called franchise fee that would impose a flat tax a business based on its gross receipts; a graduated net income tax that would tax a business' net profit at between 3 percent and 7 percent; and a capping mechanism that would set the maximum income tax owed at no more than 0.25 percent of a business' gross receipts.

Aguero said the franchise fee would set a floor, meaning a business would owe that at a minimum.

A business would owe the net income tax, if that were higher.

The bill for that net income tax could not exceed 0.25 percent of the business' gross receipts although the franchise fee, the minimum owed, could.

The goal of the mix of elements, said Aguero, was to create a more stable net income tax.

The net income tax appeared to be one broad-based tax that both houses might be able to agree upon, but many people testified throughout the session that it was the most volatile of the business taxes being considered.

The new plan was not well received in the Senate.

Sen.

Bernice Mathews (DWashoe County) said that it looked just like the governor's gross receipts tax.

She also said she thought that lawmakers were supposed to be making decisions now, without input from lobbyists.

Mathews was referring to Raggio's comments at the start of the special session when he warned lobbyists to steer clear.

In response, Raggio said the two houses were at a stalemate.

"The other house took the payroll tax off the table," he said.

"And we took the gross receipts tax off.

We are heading for an impasse.We still have to get a bill out that passes both houses."

Earlier both committees had gone through a laundry list of taxes to see which ones might be able to garner a two-thirds vote in either house.

In the Senate, the Unified Business Tax, a follow- on to the gross receipts tax, was voted down.

Meanwhile, the payroll tax was nixed by the majority of the Assembly committee.

The payroll tax, which the Senate appeared to be leaning toward, had been introduced in the final days of the regular session.

Its proponent was McMullen's Business Representatives Group, which had earlier proposed a services tax.

Although Raggio described McMullen as a lobbyist for business-atlarge, many of the business representatives seemed taken off guard by the proposal.

A group of 20 or more business lobbyists hurriedly huddled together when rumor of the plan started to circulate.

Harry York, chief executive officer of the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce, who sat in on recent Business Representative Group meetings, said he learned about the proposal 20 minutes before it was presented to the Senate.

He said he had problems with the plan, in particular the franchise tax, which he said was too onerous.

Assemblyman Lynn Hettrick (RDouglas County) had problems with that too, pointing out that lower revenue companies would be paying a much higher percent of their gross receipts than companies at the high end.

In the end, the proposal remained on the table in both houses, but by a very slim margin, at least in the Senate.