Bids come in for tax system study

The legislative committee to study Nevada's tax system received eight bids to conduct the study.

Those bids were all over the map, ranging from a low of $32,200 by a University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor to $909,861 by the University of Nevada, Reno Center for Regional Studies.

Only two of the eight included the required itemized costs. Lawmakers assigned to review those bids asked staff to go back and make the bidders itemize costs. They set a meeting Oct. 15 to review that added data and try to make a recommendation or rank the bidders by priority.

Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, who pushed for the study in the 2009 Legislature and heads the working group, said the goal is an objective study of Nevada's tax and revenue system.

"I want to see an objective study that has credibility," he said. "Not one that is a creation of any special interest group."

He said the state is already facing a $2.3 billion shortfall for the next budget cycle, which will make the 2011 Legislature "10 times as difficult as this past session."

To those who say the only answer is to cut spending, he said: "I would like to hear suggestions how you're going to cut $2.3 billion out of the budget."

The UNR study bid was far higher than any other bid. Next highest was by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability of Chicago at $544,082.

The $32,200 bid was submitted by economics professor Bill Robinson of UNLV.