Citizens needed to ax tax now

In case you’re still not sure whether Gov. Brian Sandoval’s billion-dollar giga-tax hike is not only a bad idea but completely unnecessary, conservatives in the state Assembly have removed all doubt.

First, the supposed reason for Sandoval’s tax hike is to fix education. But repeat after me: More money isn’t the answer. More money isn’t the answer. More money isn’t the answer. More money …

The only way to fix public education in Nevada is to drive a stake through the heart of the government’s ability to force kids to go to the neighborhood, government-owned, union-operated failure factories where they live.

The real solutions are vouchers, education savings accounts and homeschooling, all of which get better results for less money. Sandoval’s proposed tax hikes do nothing more than perpetuate the existing public school monopoly that has been nothing short of a disaster for several generations of kids now.

The worst thing we could do for education and our children is to approve the new and additional government spending on education that the governor’s tax hike would enable. As such, and with the legislative session more than half over, it’s time to ax the tax.

Even if you buy into Sandoval’s education “reforms,” thanks to conservatives in the state Assembly we now know that they can be funded without the governor’s job-killing, economy-crippling gross receipts business license tax.

In fact, a conservative alternative to Sandoval’s budget was recently announced by conservative State Controller Ron Knecht that not only proves the business license tax isn’t needed, but that the 2009 package of “temporary” tax hikes, known as the “sunsets,” can finally actually go away.

The conservative balanced plan for growth further proves that, contrary to popular liberal opinion, the problem isn’t the absence of a way to balance the budget and pay for essential services without raising taxes, but an absence of will.

Sandoval and his left-hand man in the Senate — Majority Leader Tax Hike Mike Roberson — have dug in their heels and won’t even consider not raising taxes. Unless they’re forced to. And the only way to force them to give up this insane tax hike proposal is for the “Lean 15” to ride again in the state Assembly.

Thanks to the Gibbons tax restraint law, which requires a two-thirds supermajority to raises taxes or fees, just 15 of the 25 Republicans can band together and block Sandoval’s billion-dollar tax hike.

And to that end Citizen Outreach has launched an axthetaxnow.com online petition where Nevada citizens, voters and taxpayers can add their name to a letter urging the Republican majority in the Legislature to back up there campaign rhetoric and cut, rather than raise, taxes.

So let it be written; so let it be done.

Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a conservative grass-roots advocacy organization. He can be reached at www.muthstruths.com.