Shots Fired! Sandoval launches effort to kill Tax Repeal Referendum

(Chuck Muth, Citizen Outreach) – You can smell the fear.

Any citizen effort to repeal all or part of the recently-passed largest tax hike in Nevada history – including a brand new business gross receipts tax (that you and I will ultimately pay for) just like the one rejected by some 80 percent of Nevada voters last November – can’t even begin until August 1st at the earliest.

But Gov. Brian Sandoval  – dubbed “America’s Worst Governor” by Investors Business Daily – has wasted no time in launching a pre-emptive strike in the coming fight over undoing the unholy tax hike monstrosity this RINO has foisted on our state.

And much like the left’s propaganda campaign to force ObamaCare down our nation’s throat, the Sandovalistas will stop at nothing and go as low as they need to go to head us off at the pass – including lying, cheating and stealing.

Indeed, as you’ll see in the “Political Eye” story below –written by Sean Whaley and published in Monday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal – Sandoval is already predicting economic Armageddon if his tax hikes, or even any portion of them,  are repealed.

It’s a lie.  But he doesn’t care.

Let me just highlight one aspect of his Gruberesque misinformation to illustrate what’s ahead for us…

As you’ll see in the article, Sandoval warns that if the tax hikes are repealed by the people who have to pay them, that will mean cuts to “services to autistic children.”

No, it doesn’t.

It means maybe cuts to other non-essential government services, like his stupid anti-bullying program or English-language learner programs for children of illegal immigrants.

But there’s no reason whatsoever, if the governor and legislators would simply set some reasonable, common sense spending priorities, that services to autistic children need to be cut.

Sandoval should be ashamed of himself for using autistic children as human political shields to protect his giga-tax hike.

But he’s not.

And before getting to Mr. Whaley’s story, be reminded that State Controller Ron Knecht and his deputy, former Nevada Policy Research Institute economist Geoff Lawrence, put together an alternative budget to fully fund the state budget with NO TAX HIKES.

You’re going to hear a lot of end-of-the-world rhetoric from the governor and his minions once these referendums actually begin circulating.  And low information voters are liable to believe the BS.

So it will be required a herculean effort on the part of the We Decide Coalition to tell them the truth and repeal this $1.4 billion tax hike.

Now here’s Mr. Whaley’s story…

Sandoval warns against repeal of tax hikes

Governor says if Nevada voters reject SB483 via referendum,

budget cuts would occur

Sean Whaley, Las Vegas Review-Journal (July 13, 2015)

Gov. Brian Sandoval said last week that if critics of the new commerce tax push to get their proposal on the November 2016 ballot as a referendum, voters need to know the potential consequences if it is repealed.

Several GOP officials who opposed the new tax approved by a majority of lawmakers in the 2015 session are looking at putting Sandoval’s revenue plan on the ballot for an up or down public vote.

But Sandoval said a repeal of the commerce tax and other elements of the revenue plan approved as one package in Senate Bill 483 probably would mean budget cuts. The bill is expected to raise $1.1 billion for the general fund budget. It includes a $1 increase on each pack of cigarettes.

“You’ve got to look at the other side of it,” he said. “If that is put on the ballot, then you’ve got to look at what you are going to cut. Are you going to cut K-12? Are you going to cut higher ed? Are you going to cut services to autistic children?

“That’s the part that isn’t talked about; these very important investments that we’ve made in the universities and particularly in K through 12,” Sandoval said. “The public needs to be informed of what the consequence is.”

The Legislature passed a $7.3 billion, two-year general fund budget that includes major enhancements for public education.

It also appropriated $29 million to open a new medical school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas by 2017, among its many other provisions.

But the new commerce tax has put many anti-tax Republicans at odds with their colleagues who voted for the measure.

Because voter turnout was so low in the 2014 general election, it would not require a large number of signatures to put the tax plan on the ballot. Ten percent of those who voted last year would have to sign the petition, which is about 55,000 signatures.

Seven referendums have qualified for the Nevada ballot, and six were approved by voters since the process was authorized in 1908. The last time it was used was in 1990 to maintain Nevada’s current laws regarding abortion. It passed.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“For the life of me, I cannot understand why there is so much dissection of Dotty’s.  It seems that Station Casinos and Boyd Gaming consider Dotty’s to be too much competition, but that is not true. There are just times when it is nice to have more of a choice, and some people don’t want to go to a big casino.  Station and Boyd properties are all great and have fine restaurants and buffets, shops and incentives. They should not worry about the customer being given another choice.”

– Marcia Romano, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 7/13/15