Horsford: MBT “Hampers Job Creation”…Let’s Double It!

(Victor Joecks/NPRI) – As the details of the Democrats’ $1.2 billion tax package, which would be the largest tax increase in Nevada’s history, are introduced as part of SB491, it’s worth remembering what Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford wrote in the Las Vegas Sun on Sunday about the Modified Business Tax.

For example, the current modified business tax hurts small business and hampers job creation.

As NPRI has been pointing out for years, Horsford’s exactly right here. The MBT hampers job creation and, as such, increasing the MBT will lead to fewer jobs.

Unfortunately for individuals in Nevada, which currently has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, Horsford also wants to double the job-hampering MBT. Under current law, the MBT rate will decrease from 1.17 percent to .63 percent when the 2009 tax hikes sunset at the end of June.

Part of Horsford’s plan to raise taxes by $1.2 billion is to permanently extend the 2009 tax increases. Now, Horsford and company do want to eventually replace the MBT with a “margins” tax — which is one of the most economically destructive tax instruments available to lawmakers — but the margins tax wouldn’t kick in until 2012.

This means that in the short term, Horsford wants to double a tax he admits “hampers job creation.”