Nevada AFL-CIO Refuses State NEA’s Tax Hike Request8

The Nevada State Education Association has hit a bump in the road in its quest for more education money through taxes.  In a surprising lack of solidarity, the Nevada AFL-CIO has publicly refused to support the Nevada Education Association’s demand that business taxpayers pitch pay more towards public education.  Mike Antonucci tells this story in Intercepts.

The Nevada State Education Association has been trying to raise state business taxes for many years in order to provide more funds for public education. Its latest effort, The Education Initiative, will appear on the November ballot. It imposes a two percent margins tax on Nevada businesses. Here are some of the reasons the AFL-CIO gives for its decision. Unfortunately for NSEA and its members who already contributed more than $1 million to this cause, the union can’t even get its natural allies aboard. Over the weekend, the Nevada AFL-CIO not only failed to support the initiative, but passed a resolution to oppose it.

It doesn’t mince words:

Whereas: the provisions of the Education Initiative do not clearly define how it would be applied to the construction industry;

and Whereas: Supporters of the Education Initiative have advertised the tax as a Net Profits margins tax when in fact it is a Gross Income tax;

and Whereas: many of the signatory contractors of the Building and Construction Trades Council have been operating on their reserves for the last several years as the State of Nevada tries to work its way out or poor economic times;

and Whereas: the Education Initiative does not take into consideration the losses those contractors have endured but instead burdens them with a tax based on the Gross Revenues from work they may perform;

and Whereas: many contractors have gone out of business during these poor economic times and the Education Initiative may place a tax burden on the contractors and business which have been surviving on marginal returns forcing them out of business as the tax burden may be higher than the profit margin;

may it therefore Be Resolved: that the Nevada State AFL-CIO and our affiliated Unions oppose the passage of tax policy while it is not clear what the effect on our signatory partners will be;

and be it Further Resolved: until the effects of the Education Initiative are clearly defined we oppose the passage and implementation of the measure, and that the Nevada State AFL-CIO will review and reevaluate its position relative to this measure at the 2014 Constitutional Convention.