Most of Nevada’s beleaguered taxpayers focus on the fact that Gov.
Brian Sandoval broke his word not to raise taxes by not once, but
twice raising the “temporary” tax hikes approved in 2009; taxes
that were supposed to “sunset” in 2011. But the governor is also
responsible for another tax hike coming to Nevada e-shoppers
everywhere on New Year’s Day.
Indeed, beginning January 1, 2014 your purchases – which are
currently made tax-free at Amazon.com – will be taxed, in addition to
any shipping charges, thanks to some arm-twisting by Sandoval to get
the company to collect the tax even though Nevada’s voters
overwhelmingly rejected such an e-tax, not once, but twice at the
ballot in 2008 and 2010.
So much for listening to the people.
“It’s not fair that local businesses pay the (sales) tax and the
Internet companies don’t,” whined State Taxation Director Chris
Nielsen recently. Except…
Local businesses don’t pay the tax. And neither will the online
companies.
YOU will pay the tax!
The simple, unmistakable truth about this is that Amazon.com
customers are about to get hosed and the State of Nevada is about to
enjoy an additional $16 million windfall of new tax revenue to spend
on bigger government. Lovely.
In other news, this short blurb from a recent Politico story pretty
much says it all…
“In a Republican party that’s gone all out against Obamacare,
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval went all in. Sandoval is the only
Republican governor whose state is both running its own health
insurance exchange this year and expanding its Medicaid program under
the health law. He’s arguably doing more to put the Democrats’
signature law into place than any other Republican. … States were
supposed to run their own insurance exchanges but most GOP governors
refused, forcing the feds to take on the job. Nevada is the only
GOP-governed state running an exchange.”
Which raises a question…
Can a moderate Democrat defeat Sandoval next year if conservative
voters who are ticked off at him for raising taxes, giving driver’s
licenses to illegal immigrants and leading the way on ObamaCare
implementation decide to vote for the Independent American Party or
Libertarian Party candidate or vote “None of the Above”?
Maybe.
As you may recall, Republican Dean Heller only won his U.S. Senate
race by around 12,000 votes last year…while the largely unknown IAP
candidate hauled in almost 50,000 protest votes. And Heller had
nowhere near the liberal record the governor has, especially on
fiscal issues.
Sandoval is not yet the shoo-in that many are pretending him to be.
With a 100,000 voter registration advantage, a credible, moderate
Democrat could run close enough to have third-party and NOTA voters
“spoil” Sandoval’s expected coronation. Long shot, to be sure.
But not impossible.
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