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Cortez Masto coddles mining. Again.
Two years ago, Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, in perhaps the most consequential individual achievement of her Senate tenure, single-handedly killed legislation to reform an egregiously industry-friendly federal mining law that was written more than 150 years ago. This week, Cortez Masto decided she wants to reform the General Mining Act of 1872 after […]
Play ball (government giveaway edition)
If Nevada doesn’t give Oakland A’s billionaire owner John Fisher $500 million, would he still relocate the team here anyway? Among people who study the impact of incentives on economic development, there is something called the “but for” concept, which asks, Would the business have gone elsewhere “but for” the tax breaks or public subsidies […]
A lottery is a tax on the poor, so you’d think Nevada would already have one
It’s weird that Nevada doesn’t have a lottery. No, not because we’re already up to our eyeballs in gambling so duh why not some more. (And as you know that industry’s whiny disdain for the competition is why we don’t have a lottery). The reason it’s weird Nevada doesn’t have a lottery is that, as […]
‘The tourists pay it’ is a lousy excuse for punishing Nevadans with a regressive tax system
What type of business generates the most sales tax revenue in Clark County, home of the Fabulous Las Vegas Strip? If you guessed “food services and drinking places” ding ding ding you are right. It accounts for about 20% of the county’s total sales tax revenue, according to the Nevada Department of Taxation. But how […]
If businesses want to give money to private schools, nothing is stopping them
Nevada has a private school pseudo-voucher program called Opportunity Scholarships. Technically, public money isn’t sent directly to private schools or their parents. That would be unconstitutional in Nevada. So the Republican workaround to that, devised a few years ago when a Republican was governor, gives tax credits to businesses who donate to one of a […]
Purportedly ‘historic’ indictment actually tackles Trump at his most insipid
The Nevada State Republican Party pushing out fundraising emails with the words “weaponization” and “Soros.” Donald Trump whining. The media repetitively yet breathlessly using the word “historic.” Democrats wringing their hands in trepidation that something might be bad for them. It must be a day that ends in y. The indictment of Trump in connection […]
Lombardo’s ‘executive order’ on energy doesn’t ‘order’ much of anything at all
Gov Joe Lombardo issued an official “executive order” on energy policy Monday. It should have been titled an “executive sentiment.” The only item approximating a tangible specific policy in the “order” is Lombardo directing state agencies to conduct permitting processes concurrently instead of sequentially. And even that is only “when applicable.” Big deal. Whenever there’s […]
Lithium: ‘More economic colonialism?’ Nevada: ‘Yes, please.’
For roughly three years before it began skyrocketing in late 2021, the price of a metric ton of lithium carbonate mostly ambled along in the vicinity of $17,500. The price peaked in November 2022, at more than $86,800 per ton. More recently, it’s been plummeting, and as of Thursday morning was down to less than […]
The Fed is partying like it’s 1979
Working people in the U.S., and especially in Nevada, are not making too much money. It’s tempting to say “This message was brought to you by Captain Obvious,” and leave it at that. But there is much squawking that the Federal Reserve should hold off on raising interest rates again because that bank for the […]
No, nobody’s raising your property tax rate. But they should.
Which radical woke liberal state imposes a bigger residential property tax burden than Nevada? Texas! So does the purportedly “free state” of Florida. Property tax burdens are higher in a bunch of other self-styled freedom loving – i.e, reliably red – states, including but not limited to Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Montana, Idaho, Missouri, Kentucky, […]
Fox & fakes
The word “Nevada” pops up every now and then in the massive tranches of documents Dominion Voting Systems has been releasing as part of its defamation suit against Fox News. Mostly it’s in reference to fraudulent claims from, well, frauds, like Donald Trump surrogates Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell. Egged on by Fox’s on-air personalities, […]
Musk had them at ‘Hello’
Praise be. Let us one and all give thanks, for almighty Tesla has bestowed on humble Nevada such generous bounty, and let us hope that we can be worthy of such gifts. In a sign of our unwavering appreciation and worship, we offer a tithing to thee, oh benevolent Tesla, truly little more than a […]