This morning the Nevada Independent published an Op-ed Time to reevaluate priorities, true cost of tax giveaways by Assemblymember Selena La Rue Hatch. I’d like to read some of her comments into the record as my opposition testimony.
She begins: $380 million to a California billionaire for a baseball stadium, $4 billion for a couple of movie studios and another $330 million to a Texas billionaire for an electric car factory. Seems like corporate America has decided it’s Christmas in Nevada and Nevada taxpayers are being cast in the role of Santa.
Along with sports facilities “We see the same conclusions with studies on film tax incentives. Fiscal offices in California, Pennsylvania and Virginia have all determined that film tax credits had a negligible impact on state economies and more often than not, the costs outweigh the benefits.”
She goes on to discuss a study from USC Professor Michael Thom that discusses 26 states doing this similar idea with no measurable effect on job growth.
She raises a couple of questions, one of which is:
If these multibillion dollar industries are so successful, why do they need the public to foot the bill for their relocations and expansions?
She continues: Billionaire business owners view Nevada as an easy mark, willing to foot the bill every time they ask."
We have been talking all session about record revenues pouring into the state, but even with these “record revenues,” we can’t have honest discussions about reducing our class sizes (the largest in the nation), funding universal prekindergarten, getting mental health supports to community members who need them most, or updating crumbling and overcrowded facilities for our students, unhoused population, mental health patients and more. Why can’t we talk about these things? Because apparently, we don’t have “enough” money.
The Assemblymember concludes “It seems to me that if we don’t have money for our kids and our most vulnerable Nevadans, then we certainly don’t have enough money to give away Billions in abatements and transferable tax credits to billionaires.”
It was said best in the stadium hearing Monday; the public is not going to hear about the metrics, the speculations, projections, etc. All they’ll see is a state at the bottom of most good lists, crumbling facilities for students, mental health needs being unmet, while the Legislature is focused on Stadiums and Movie Studios.
With these sorts of priorities, we may be in Carson City, but it feels like we’re living in La La Land...
