Mass confusion this morning on a “Where’s Waldo” tax hike amendment to AB 235. It was approved late Friday night, but no one seems to have a copy of the actual language.
The bill was originally introduced to deal with ethanol and other biofuels, but Paul Enos of the trucking industry sent out a frantic note – “WE NEED YOUR HELP! ATTACK ON TRUCKERS!” – to his members this morning warning that someone “sneaked” a tax hike on diesel fuel into the bill as an amendment in the Senate Taxation Committee on Friday.
“In a late night hearing, the Senate Taxation Committee passed an amendment to Assembly Bill 235 that would raise the state’s diesel tax by 7 cents” reports Anjeanette Damon of Inside Nevada Politics. “The amendment also calls for a vote in each county that would allow the diesel tax to be indexed to inflation to raise additional revenue.”
It is believed the amendment was snuck in by lobbyists for the unionized Association of General Contractors (AGC) who see the diesel tax hike as a way to raise money for government road-building projects they’d be hired complete. Talk about feathering your own nest.
AGC is willing to screw the trucking industry for its own benefit. Meanwhile, the mining and gaming industries are willing to screw every other business in the state just to avoid having their own oxes (oxen?) gored. And Speaker Barbara Buckley is trying to screw Nevada’s large businesses while exempting small businesses from a huge payroll tax hike. And everybody’s trying to screw the public as a whole with a sales tax and vehicle registration fee hike.
With all of this screwing and money flying around in Carson City, you’d think prostitution was legal there.
