Dems Want To Raise Your Taxes By $1.5 Billion

(Victor Joecks/NPRI) – That number was first reported by Ralston on Twitter.

Dem plan: Sunsets off, no more payroll tax, services tax, phased-in franchise tax. Should raise about $1.5B.

Legislative Democrats likely won’t officially release the plan until tomorrow at 10 am [May 5], but let’s consider what this means — in the middle of the worst economic situation in the entire country, Democrats want to increase spending by over 20 percent and pass the largest tax hike in Nevada’s history onto individuals in the struggling private sector.

After all of his budgetary add backs, Gov. Brian Sandoval is proposing a budget of around $6.2 billion. For comparison, Nevada spent about $6.4 billion in its last budget.

If Democrats are going to eliminate the $190 million loan in Sandoval’s budget (unconfirmed), this would push Nevada’s General Fund spending up to $7.5 billion, a 17 percent increase. If the Democrats kept the $190 million loan, general fund spending would go up to $7.7 billion, a 20 percent increase in spending.

At a time when the private sector unemployment rate is over 13 percent, businesses have had their revenue decline by up to two-thirds and private-sector workers have faced pay cuts of 50 percent or more, to suggest that government needs to grow by 20 percent and Nevadans should have to pay $1.5 billion more in taxes is the height of fiscal irresponsibility and the tax-and-spend liberal philosophy.