HEIDIOLOGY
CAUSE AND EFFECT
BY HEIDI HARRIS

I �m familiar with the fact that you�re going to ignore this thing until it swims up and bites you in the ass. There are two ways you can solve this thing: you can kill it, or cut off its food supply.�

�Shark expert Matt Hooper to the Mayor of Amity, Jaws 1975

The residents of Amity Island weren�t the first people to ignore a disaster until it was too late. Although Matt Hooper (actor Richard Dreyfus) was referring to a shark problem, replace the theme with taxes, and his assessment would apply to Nevada and its voracious appetite for tax revenue.

Last summer, taxpayers in two of Nevada�s 17 counties were shocked to see their property taxes rise due to the exponential increase in property values. Now taxpayers want to revolt. How quickly they forget. 

Where were all of those incensed taxpayers in November when virtually the entire gang of tax-and-spend politicians was returned to Carson City? Clearly, taxpayers didn�t squawk after they passed a new tax package � to the tune of more than $800 million � in 2003. I wonder why so many Nevadans have difficulty understanding cause and effect.

Regardless of what happens with property-tax �relief,� Nevada still has a revenue problem. A Prop 13-esque restriction might provide predictable property taxes, but as any Californian can attest, it won�t do a thing to prevent tax sharks from enacting other taxes and fees. What we need to do with the tax shark, as Matt Hooper recommended, is cut off its food supply � and once and for all end toleration for unrestrained government growth.

During the 2003 legislative session, one legislator, Josh Griffin, stated that he wasn�t concerned about a tax increase on tobacco because �I don�t smoke.� This is the same logic many people use as government continues to expand. The fee or tax doesn�t apply to them, so why should they care? Unrestrained growth is a problem for all of us, whether we smoke, drink, own property or own a business. Taxes and fees are not created in a vacuum; elected officials enact them. We have the ultimate power to fire them; so why don�t we?

I have trouble sympathizing for distressed homeowners who have re-elected the worst tax-and-spenders, or have not bothered to vote at all. Is it because one particular legislator has promised to �freeze space rent,� or �bring in more money for education?� Whenever politicians promise relief for our personal concerns (whether or not they can actually deliver) we tend to ignore the bigger picture, thinking �I�ve got mine, so the rest of you are on your own.�

If we�re going to save our state from California-style bankruptcy, we�re going to have to take a hard line approach to our state�s finances by asking lawmakers to justify all expenses, demanding fiscal restraint and voting out tax sharks. All Nevadans have a responsibility to our state, and it begins by sending the right message to elected officials. LW