Nevadans must be scratching their heads at the reaction of MGM Mirage Inc. to tax increases approved last week by Nevada legislators.
MGM Mirage announced it was quitting the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, Nevada Development Authority and Nevada Resort Association in protest of an increase in gaming taxes.
As we understand it, MGM Mirage -- the state's biggest taxpayer and employer (39,000 workers in a dozen casinos) -- is upset its taxes are being raised. And the implication is that somebody else isn't paying their fair share.
Chief executive Terry Lanni told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the company might just stop doing business with companies that were in favor of a raise in casino taxes but against raising their own taxes.
"We will evaluate the positions they took in Carson City," Lanni told the newspaper. "If they actively promoted increasing our taxes and not theirs, we will deal with them accordingly. We're tired of being rejected out-of-hand, of having heavy feet stomp on our hands and heads."
Huh?
First, we were under the clear impression a whole lot of people got dinged by the Legislature -- all of them named Joe Citizen. We may not be coughing up the $30 million that MGM Mirage will contribute to state coffers, but we're all paying more for alcohol, cigarettes, show tickets, real-estate sales, state filing fees.
Second, the tax on payrolls is going to hit some businesses hard. But it's also going to take a bite out of employee salaries, because money that might have gone toward raises is instead heading for the state bureaucracy.
Third, many Nevadans have been laboring under an apparently false notion that casino lobbyists were highly influential in the Legislative Building.
We are, frankly, shocked to learn that MGM Mirage believes it has been stomped.
Now you know how the rest of the state feels.