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Ronald Reagan understood the nature of government like no one since our Founding Fathers.\u00a0 And this Reagan quote is about as immutable as \u201cwhat goes up must come down\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cNo government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Same goes for \u201ctemporary\u201d tax hikes foisted upon citizens to pay the freight.\u00a0 The latest example\u2026<\/p>\n Back in 1998, Clark County (NV) voters approved an advisory question for a \u201ctemporary\u201d quarter-cent hike in the sales tax for \u201cwater and wastewater infrastructure\u201d projects.\u00a0 That tax, as passed, was set to expire \u2013 \u201csunset\u201d in political-speak – in 2025.<\/p>\n And while a quarter-cent sounds like a piddling amount, a quarter cent here and a quarter cent there adds up to a pretty humongous figure.\u00a0 In fact, since 1999 that little quarter cent added to your sales purchases has totaled up to a whopping $1.4 BILLION dollars.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, a move is afoot by government bureaucrats urging the Clark County Commission to remove the \u201csunset\u201d clause and make the tax hike permanent \u2013 you know, just like how Gov. Brian Sandoval and the 2015 Nevada Legislature made those \u201ctemporary\u201d tax hikes passed during the Great Recession permanent.<\/p>\n The Las Vegas City Council is considering a resolution in support of the lobbying effort by the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) to make the quarter-cent tax hike permanent.\u00a0 In a November 21, 2018 memo to the council from the Director of Administrative Services, Ted Olivas wrote\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cThis stable revenue source is needed to maintain the credit worthiness of water agencies and keep water bills affordable for customers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Let me ask you a question: Do you think your water bill is \u201caffordable\u201d?<\/p>\n Indeed, back in December 1997, Southern Nevada Water Authority spokeswoman Jeanine Klein said that \u201cResidential customers will be charged a quarter-percent reliability surcharge, resulting in a 7 to 10 cent increase for the average user at $26 a month.\u201d<\/p>\n Anybody out there still paying anywhere near $26 bucks a month for their water?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t think so.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n Hearken back, dear taxpayer, to this article by Henry Breen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on December 3, 2013\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cEver feel like your water bill goes up every year?\u00a0 Get used to it.\u00a0 On Tuesday, the Clark County Commission, sitting as the board for the Las Vegas Valley Water District, unanimously approved a series of annual rate hikes scheduled to begin in January and top out in 2017.\u00a0 All customers, from the smallest home to the largest resort, can expect to see their bills go up\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n And they ain\u2019t done yet. \u00a0From SNWA\u2019s current website\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2017, the Las Vegas Valley Water District Board of Directors approved a change to water rates to support the LVVWD\u2019s capital improvements efforts over the next decade. The Water District is investing more than $600 million to upgrade, replace and expand pipelines, pumping stations, reservoirs and other infrastructure vital to the operation of the community\u2019s water system.\u00a0 Beginning in January 2018, typical monthly residential water bills will increase by about 75 cents as the second phase of the rate modification takes effect.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Before the third phase kicks in.\u00a0 Then the fourth.\u00a0 Then the fifth.\u00a0 Eternal life!<\/p>\n Now\u2026<\/p>\n If the \u201ctemporary\u201d quarter-cent sales tax hike was sold to consumers and taxpayers as necessary for \u201cwater and wastewater infrastructure\u201d projects, why are our monthly water rates still being jacked up for \u201cpipelines, pumping stations, reservoirs and other infrastructure\u201d projects?<\/p>\n Something smells here\u2026and it ain\u2019t the wastewater treatment plant near my home!<\/p>\n Sounds to me like there\u2019s either some mismanagement going on, or mission creep, or taxpayers have once again been scammed by the ol\u2019 bait-and-switch.<\/p>\n Oh, and here\u2019s the most dishonest part of the scam\u2026<\/p>\n Under the \u201cFiscal Impact\u201d heading of his memo to council members, Olivas listed: \u201cNo Impact.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s pure, unadulterated bull droppings.\u00a0 And it\u2019s the same scam Republicans pulled in 2015 to justify voting to make the \u201ctemporary\u201d tax hikes passed in 2009 permanent.\u00a0 They claimed that nobody\u2019s CURRENT taxes would go up; therefore, it wasn\u2019t a tax \u201cincrease.\u201d<\/p>\n But the lie lies within the fact that the tax increase was originally sold as being temporary; that the temporary tax would eventually go away; that your taxes would one day be LOWER again. That\u2019s the BS these hucksters used to sell their snake oil.<\/p>\n In 2025, that \u201ctemporary\u201d quarter-cent tax hike is supposed to disappear.\u00a0 And no matter how Mr. Olivas tries to slice it and buffalo the public, any extension of a \u201ctemporary\u201d tax hike that\u2019s supposed to go away is a new tax HIKE.\u00a0 Period.<\/p>\n The FACT is, voters in 1998 voted for the quarter-cent tax hike with the understanding that it would drop back in 2025.\u00a0 So any effort by the county commission to remove the \u201csunset\u201d clause and either extend or make permanent the quarter-cent tax hike is an outright breech of contract and a betrayal of the voters who voted for it.<\/p>\n Since the VOTERS voted for the TEMPORARY tax hike in 1998, the ONLY honest way to extend or make it permanent should be via ANOTHER vote of the people, not the seven members of the county commission.\u00a0 Period.<\/p>\n If the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the Clark County Commission, the Las Vegas City Council, and any other \u201ceternal life\u201d government department, agency or bureau wants to extend or make permanent that \u201ctemporary\u201d quarter-cent tax hike\u2026put it on the ballot, make your case and let the people decide.<\/p>\n Period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ronald Reagan understood the nature of government like no one since our Founding Fathers.\u00a0 And this Reagan quote is about as immutable as \u201cwhat goes up must come down\u201d\u2026 \u201cNo government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88897,"featured_media":40328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[748],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40327"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88897"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40330,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40327\/revisions\/40330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}