I have been accused of being totally against regulatory oversight, and more of an anarchist. I respectfully disagree, when I have stated that I wished that we return to the regulatory levels of the year 2000. I am speaking in terms of fees and taxes; this would reduce regulatory additions that have been added this last decade. I believe that we need to relook at what was the intent, and what was the outcome of these additional oversights. For to just to continue to inject regulatory oversight without a review process, is by its nature unjust. Big Business often uses its ability to form regulation to its advantage, and help promote monopolistic pressures. Here in Nevada the Casino lobby's ability to promote a state wide smoking ban by being able to hide through its ability to place members on the cancer society’s and fund that ban, is unjust. By a selective nature of implementation the smoking ban allowed casinos to operate on a different level of rules that allowed them to monopolize the gaming market. Never mind it is illegal for personally benefit from the actions of a non profit, the large Las Vegas casinos broke IRS code.The knowledge of the connection between smoking and gambling is well known and documented. Any law that excludes one level of business activity at a lower level and allows for larger companies is unjust in any market place. While having harsher implementation at a lower level in the economy is wrong and unjust. You might think that I smoke; well you would be wrong in that assumption, I just can’t allow government to be used that way, especially in these hard economic times.
In Nevada, we used our free economic climate to separate ourselves from our neighboring states. Well for a good social cause we have allowed ourselves to be played. Our millennium scholarship for higher education funded by the cigarette settlement and taxes has been placed in jeopardy and are in real trouble in Nevada to fund higher education. We now have destroyed the 275 million that we used to get from the tax has generated by the slot routes in Nevada. And the monies that the slot routes used to share with local businesses have been wiped out. Just drive down your local street and see which businesses are closed and look for yourselves. Local stores, restaurants bars drug stores and supermarkets that used to derive monies from the games have seen that wiped out. Their abilities to pay power, rent, payroll has been destroyed. The one main difference that the local gaming business had over the Casino industry in Nevada was that it gave local business owners direct access to money generated by those games. The Casino Lobby used its power and influences to destroy a major part of the Nevada economy, and we allowed it to happen.
The issue is on the growth and application of much of this regulatory, tax and fee structure that came into being during this last decade. I believe that this growth came with it a big price tag, one our local economy cannot afford. I believe that Government grew with the same zeal that the private sector did, but right now in the economic situation that we now face we need to get off of businesses chest if we want jobs and the ability to have economic growth so we can all benefit. Now that reality has come to the private sector that has brought a new sense of frugality, our Government is slowly being dragged in that same direction. Our political leaders always use the heart strings of putting our teachers, police and fire on the front line to try to fight a budget crisis and attempt to gain any support to maintain our tax levels.
This attempt of our political leaders is misplaced, and leads to a public that distrusts is own government. We need services, but it has to be viewed on our ability to pay. And with this new economic condition that we are now living we have some serious choices ahead of us. Regulatory oversight needs to allow for business to grow; Right now we have departments using fees and regulatory oversight to shack down new projects, and are having a negative impact of future growth. How much can a business afford to have in say a new veterinary clinic, being built? If we add undue cost to that project the vet will have to have higher fees from everything from shots to a yearly check up. This would not make him or her competitive and thus make it harder to recoups the investment into the new building. I have a neighbor, who has owned multiple veterinary clinics in the area and is trying to build a new clinic in a new area. these charges is a hardship to that project, not only is his business plan being hurt, but the contractors that are waiting for the permits to be drawn are also being hurt playing this waiting game.
When regulatory oversight, fees and taxes become punitive in nature we have begun down a road that will bring economic stagnation, this practice needs to change.
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