Letters to the editor for Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015

Lawmakers dropped anchor on economy

You can boil down NNDA’s Rob Hooper (Appeal, July 19) article defending Nevada’s new Commerce Tax to the rather silly claim that it damages Nevada-based and out-of-state companies that do business in Nevada equally.

Chantal Lovell of the Nevada Policy Research Institute has produced a fact-based analysis of the tax, pointing out that the gross-receipts Commerce Tax, like the margin tax that was defeated by 80 percent of voters, taxes a business’ revenue, not profit. The trigger threshold, $4 million in revenue, guarantees that even smaller firms running in the red, their employees, and customers, will be hurt.

Lovell points out that firms in industries with high operating costs, for example heavy personnel or goods expenses, will be impacted even if that $4 million merely passes through the company.

Furthermore, all businesses in Nevada must now file a Commerce Tax Return beginning next year, when the new levy goes into effect, regardless of whether they reach the $4 million threshold.

That Sen. Kieckhefer and Assemblyman O’Neill tried to preemptively defend their role in dropping this boat anchor on Nevada’s economy to a friendly audience is telling. They want to get ahead of the wave of layoffs and business failures they will have caused.

Henri Stone

Gardnerville

Flower boxes would add to downtown’s appeal

The current community focus on enhancing the appearance of Carson City seems to be making a difference, especially in our downtown area. The large hanging flower baskets lining the street are beautiful this time of year.

Our Capitol complex is another pleasant aspect of downtown, full of trees, grass and numerous plants that are always well maintained, by the Nevada Department of Buildings and Grounds, I would imagine.

I’d like to suggest adding flowers or other plantings to the 12 planter boxes between the Capitol and the Legislative Building. There are two rows of six beautiful trees, each one a centerpiece of a planter box. Each of these planter boxes has two large exterior boxes that are empty, except for two of them. The total of the “flower boxes” is 24; it would be especially attractive to the area if all of the 24 boxes were planted.

I imagine the state budget has eliminated attention to these boxes except for the trees. My neighbor suggested that perhaps the Greenhouse Project could include this as part of their outreach. Or perhaps to begin with it could be one or more students’ senior project. Maybe someone has a better idea to brighten this lovely setting.

Jan Penney-Araza

Carson City