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Archive for month: March, 2015

You are here: Home » Updates » Political Update – March 9, 2015 » 2015 » March
March 23, 2015
23 Mar 2015

Political Update – March 23, 2015

 

Report: Nevada maintains favorable tax climate for businesses

Steve Kanigher
8 News Now

LAS VEGAS — Nevada boasts the nation’s third most favorable overall tax climate for businesses, behind only Wyoming and South Dakota, the nonpartisan Tax Foundation reported Tuesday.

The research think tank, based in Washington, D.C., also assigned Nevada a tie for the nation’s top rank for corporate and individual income taxes because the state doesn’t collect either tax.

 

Nevada also has the ninth lowest property taxes, but only the 39th lowest sales taxes and 43rd lowest unemployment insurance taxes among the 50 states, according to data as of July 1.

 

The foundation reported that the typical American had to work until April 21 last year before earning enough money to pay all federal, state and local taxes for all of 2014. For Nevadans, Tax Freedom Day fell on April 8, 13 days earlier. Only six states paid off their tax burdens earlier in the year.

 

Among other findings the foundation ranked Nevada:

 

* 26th highest for state tax collections in fiscal 2013 at $2,535 per capita compared to a U.S. average of $2,689.

 

* 48th highest for state revenue in fiscal 2013 at $4,113 per capita compared to a U.S. average of $5,428.

 

* 43rd highest with federal aid making up 25 percent of state revenue in fiscal 2013. 

 

* 4th highest state general sales tax collections at $1,312 per capita in fiscal 2013 compared to a U.S. average of $809. 

 

* 10th highest state gasoline tax rate at 33.15 cents per gallon as of Jan. 1. 

 

Read More Here 


Keystone’s Mission:

To recruit, support and advocate for candidates for public office who support private sector job creation, low taxation, a responsible regulatory environment, and effective delivery of essential state services.

 

Keystone’s Goals:
  • To focus on candidate support on state legislative races and the governor’s office.
  • To oppose any form of corporate income taxes or other business taxes that discourage capital investment and therefore job creation.
  • Support limiting Nevada state government spending to the rate of population growth.

 

 

Quote: “Nevada boasts the nation’s third most favorable overall tax climate for businesses, behind only Wyoming and South Dakota.”
Steve Kanigher, 8 News Now

 

 

 

Keystone Annual Luncheon 

 

With Guest Speaker
Marc Tucker
April 22, 2015
12:00pm-1:30pm
$35.00 per person
Silverton Hotel
Veil Event Pavilion
3333 Blue Diamond Rd.
Las Vegas, NV 89139

The current debate over what kind of tax increase to levy is taking place because of the cost of our public education system 

K-12 education accounts for 45% of our total
annual spending…where and when does it stop?

Marc Tucker, who is currently a Visiting Distinguished Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has researched the American education system as well as many other countries.

Marc’s book, “Surpassing Shanghai“, looks in depth at the education systems that are leading the world in student performance to find out what strategies are working and how they might apply to the United States. Developed from the work of the National Center on Education and the Economy, which has been researching the education systems of countries with the highest student performance for more than twenty years, this book provides a series of answers to the question of how the United States can compete with the world’s best.

Learn how Nevada can compete with the world’s best.

Download the
RSVP form here

Email To:
info@KeystoneNevada.com

Phone To: 702-952-2456

Click here for Directions to Silverton Hotel

 

 

 

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March 17, 2015
17 Mar 2015

Political Update – March 17, 2015

 

Report: Nevada maintains favorable tax climate for businesses

Steve Kanigher
8 News Now

LAS VEGAS — Nevada boasts the nation’s third most favorable overall tax climate for businesses, behind only Wyoming and South Dakota, the nonpartisan Tax Foundation reported Tuesday.

The research think tank, based in Washington, D.C., also assigned Nevada a tie for the nation’s top rank for corporate and individual income taxes because the state doesn’t collect either tax.

 

Nevada also has the ninth lowest property taxes, but only the 39th lowest sales taxes and 43rd lowest unemployment insurance taxes among the 50 states, according to data as of July 1.

 

The foundation reported that the typical American had to work until April 21 last year before earning enough money to pay all federal, state and local taxes for all of 2014. For Nevadans, Tax Freedom Day fell on April 8, 13 days earlier. Only six states paid off their tax burdens earlier in the year.

 

Among other findings the foundation ranked Nevada:

 

* 26th highest for state tax collections in fiscal 2013 at $2,535 per capita compared to a U.S. average of $2,689.

 

* 48th highest for state revenue in fiscal 2013 at $4,113 per capita compared to a U.S. average of $5,428.

 

* 43rd highest with federal aid making up 25 percent of state revenue in fiscal 2013. 

 

* 4th highest state general sales tax collections at $1,312 per capita in fiscal 2013 compared to a U.S. average of $809. 

 

* 10th highest state gasoline tax rate at 33.15 cents per gallon as of Jan. 1. 

 

Read More Here

 

 


Keystone’s Mission:

To recruit, support and advocate for candidates for public office who support private sector job creation, low taxation, a responsible regulatory environment, and effective delivery of essential state services.

Keystone’s Goals:
  • To focus on candidate support on state legislative races and the governor’s office.
  • To oppose any form of corporate income taxes or other business taxes that discourage capital investment and therefore job creation.
  • Support limiting Nevada state government spending to the rate of population growth.

Quote: Is PERS a Ponzi Scheme? Based on the testimony of the state pension system’s defenders, who oppose reforming retirement benefits for future government hires, it certainly appears so” – RGJ Editorial Board 

EDITORIAL: PERS advocates’ own words prove reform bill is needed

Las Vegas Review Journal

Is PERS a Ponzi scheme? Based on the testimony of the state pension system’s defenders, who oppose reforming retirement benefits for future government hires, it certainly appears so.

The Public Employees Retirement System of Nevada provides guaranteed-for-life pensions to the state’s government retirees. Those benefits, which have been promised to almost all current public employees, as well, are paid from a fund that invests employer and employee contributions. That fund doesn’t have enough money, and can’t be expected to generate enough return on its investments, to pay all the benefits that have been promised. Depending on how you measure the risk of those investments, PERS has an unfunded liability of between $12.5 billion and $40 billion.

Rather than continue to make overly generous promises the public can’t afford to keep, taxpayer advocates want to phase out PERS and transition new generations of Nevada government employees into a different retirement system, one that’s more affordable for the public and more portable for the government workforce. Assembly Bill 190, which had a hearing before the Government Affairs Committee on Tuesday, would do that by adopting a Utah-style retirement system: part guaranteed pension, part 401(k)-style savings.

 

Read More Here

 

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March 13, 2015
13 Mar 2015

Political Update – March 9, 2015

Editorial: Lawmakers must reform public employee retirement system

 Thomas Mitchell
4TH ST8

Most of the blather coming out of Carson City this legislative session has been about the various means that can be employed to tap
more tax revenue from the citizens. But finally someone has introduced a bill that would curb the state’s profligate spending.

This past week Republican Assemblyman Randy Kirner of Reno introduced Assembly Bill 190, which calls for reforming the Nevada Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS), which under government voodoo accounting methods has an unfunded liability of $12.5 billion, but under the accounting methods the rest of us must use the liability is actually more than $40 billion — nearly $15,000 per capita and growing.

The changes Kirner proposes would apply to state and local government workers hired after July 1, 2016, leaving unchanged the benefits promised to current employees and retirees. “The bill protects people that are in PERS today,” Kirner told reporters. “A promise made is a promise kept.”

Currently the system is a 100 percent defined benefit program, in which the retirement benefit is calculated based on years of service and level of pay of the employee at retirement, regardless of the state of the economy.

AB190 would introduce a hybrid — part defined benefit, part defined contribution. A defined contribution plan is similar to the 401(k) programs used primarily by the private sector. Under this system typically a certain percent of the employee’s salary is invested in something like a mutual fund and the retiree benefit depends on the amount contributed and how well the investments perform. The taxpayer has no obligation to make up any difference on that part of a hybrid retirement plan. Defined contribution plans are also are more easily portable to another job or retirement system. 

Kirner’s bill also would end the practice of allowing government workers to purchase up to five years of retirement credit and retire at 70 percent of highest pay after only 25 years on the job.

The bill also ties the minimum retirement age for receiving full benefits to that allowed under the Social Security Act, meaning retirees would collect full benefits for far fewer years, in many cases decades fewer. Police officers and firefighters would be able to retire with full benefits 10 years earlier.

Further, the bill requires a certain level of contributions toward retirement to come from both the employer and the employee. It bars public employee unions from using collective bargaining to increase the amount of contribution from the employer, a practice that over years has allowed some government workers to contribute nothing in lieu of higher raises.

 

Read More Here 
 

Keystone’s Mission:

To recruit, support and advocate for candidates for public office who support private sector job creation, low taxation, a responsible regulatory environment, and effective delivery of essential state services.

Keystone’s Goals:
  • To focus on candidate support on state legislative races and the governor’s office.
  • To oppose any form of corporate income taxes or other business taxes that discourage capital investment and therefore job creation.
  • Support limiting Nevada state government spending to the rate of population growth.
Quote:
“The bill protects people that are in PERS today. A promise made is a promise kept.” –Assemblyman Randy Kirner

 

Keystone Annual Luncheon 
With Guest Speaker
Marc Tucker
April 22, 2015
12:00pm-1:30pm
$35.00 per person
Silverton Hotel
Veil Event Pavilion
3333 Blue Diamond Rd.
Las Vegas, NV 89139

The current debate over what kind of tax increase to levy is taking place because of the cost of our public education system

K-12 education accounts for 45% of our total
annual spending…where and when does it stop?

Marc Tucker, who is currently a Visiting Distinguished Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has researched the American education system as well as many other countries.

Marc’s book, “Surpassing Shanghai“, looks in depth at the education systems that are leading the world in student performance to find out what strategies are working and how they might apply to the United States. Developed from the work of the National Center on Education and the Economy, which has been researching the education systems of countries with the highest student performance for more than twenty years, this book provides a series of answers to the question of how the United States can compete with the world’s best.

Learn how Nevada can compete with the world’s best.

Download the
RSVP form here

Email To:
info@KeystoneNevada.com

Phone To: 702-952-2456

Click here for Directions to Silverton Hotel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re having trouble viewing this email, you may see it online.

in Political Update /by webmaster/#permalink
March 5, 2015
05 Mar 2015

Political Update – March 3, 2015

Premature election?

STEVE SEBELIUS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

 

Assembly Speaker John Hambrick has voted for exactly the same number of taxes as his would-be replacement in the Legislature, Jim Marchant: zero.

So isn’t the ongoing campaign to recall Hambrick from office (and, potentially, replace him with Marchant) a bit premature?

Proponents say no, because Hambrick has indicated he’s willing to break the no-tax pledge that he signed back in 2010. He told me that if Republicans could pass merit pay for teachers, a school voucher law and Gov. Brian Sandoval’s Read by 3 initiative, he’d vote for the taxes necessary to pay for school reforms.

“If we can get all that, I’ll take the hit on the tax pledge,” he said.

But that’s still a big “if.” And Hambrick is a long way from pushing the green button on taxes.

Yet to read literature attacking Hambrick and promoting Marchant, uncovered by my colleague Jon Ralston, the timing doesn’t really matter; the mere fact that Hambrick has indicated a willingness to abandon his no-tax pledge is apostasy enough to put him on the political rack.

“When our elected officials mis-speak, or mis-remember, or mis-represent, WE MIS-VOTE!” one of the fliers declares. (Perhaps that meant to say, “we mis-voted,” given that the vote took place more distant in time than the mis-speaking, mis-remembering and/or mis-representing?)

 

Read More Here

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keystone’s Mission:

To recruit, support and advocate for candidates for public office who support private sector job creation, low taxation, a responsible regulatory environment, and effective delivery of essential state services.

Keystone’s Goals:
  • To focus on candidate support on state legislative races and the governor’s office.
  • To oppose any form of corporate income taxes or other business taxes that discourage capital investment and therefore job creation.
  • Support limiting Nevada state government spending to the rate of population growth.

 

Keystone Annual Luncheon 
With Guest Speaker
Marc Tucker
April 22, 2015
12:00pm-1:30pm
$35.00 per person
Silverton Hotel
Veil Event Pavilion
3333 Blue Diamond Rd.
Las Vegas, NV 89139

The current debate over what kind of tax increase to levy is taking place because of the cost of our public education system

K-12 education accounts for 45% of our total
annual spending…where and when does it stop?

Marc Tucker, who is currently a Visiting Distinguished Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has researched the American education system as well as many other countries.

Marc’s book, “Surpassing Shanghai“, looks in depth at the education systems that are leading the world in student performance to find out what strategies are working and how they might apply to the United States. Developed from the work of the National Center on Education and the Economy, which has been researching the education systems of countries with the highest student performance for more than twenty years, this book provides a series of answers to the question of how the United States can compete with the world’s best.

Learn how Nevada can compete with the world’s best.

Download the
RSVP form here

Email To:
info@KeystoneNevada.com

Phone To: 702-952-2456

Click here for Directions to Silverton Hotel

 

If you’re having trouble viewing this email, you may see it online.

in Political Update /by webmaster/#permalink

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Keystone’s Mission:

To recruit, support and advocate for candidates for public office who support private sector job creation, low taxation, a responsible regulatory environment, and effective delivery of essential state services.

Keystone’s Goals:

To focus on candidate support in state legislative races and the governor’s office.

To oppose any form of corporate income taxes or other business taxes that discourage capital investment and therefore job creation.

Support limiting Nevada state government spending to the rate of population growth.

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