Tyrus W. Cobb: Thanks for innovative tax reforms - NOT!

We are halfway through the Legislative session and has anybody seen the alternative budget to what Gov. Sandoval has proposed? Nope. We are still being inundated by plaintive cries about how hard the various recipient agencies and systems are going to be hurt if the draft budget survives. This is all true, but much of the spending slashes could be offset by innovative new tax proposals.

The problem is we haven't heard a single concrete idea from any of those crying from the rooftops about how bad this governor's draconian budget is. Oh yes, we continue to be told that Nevada has a tax structure that is decades out of date, unbalanced, and which does not reflect contemporary economic activity. We are also told that this structure is a primary cause of our current fiscal crisis.

Yet can anyone point to a state that has a so-called "balanced tax structure"? I didn't think so. Can anyone point to a state that is doing well financially, particularly because of its revenue system? Probably not.

Wait! I am being too harsh. There has been at least one actual tax proposal, that from Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce to - get this - double cigarette taxes. How bold! How innovative! We also hear that some legislators will fall back on extending the "sunsetting taxes" on sales and businesses. Well, both of these simply magnify the negative aspects of our current system.

When it became known that the state taxation office had not been tracking mining profits, a storm ensued and suggestions that mining needed to pay more were roundly heard. Understandable since gold accounts for 90 percent of the value of minerals produced in Nevada, the fourth largest gold producing entity in the world. Toronto-based Barrick and Denver's Newmont account for more than 90 percent of that, and the two companies reported 2010 revenue of more than $20 billion and a combined net income of $6.4 billion! So where is the great new mining tax proposal? All I hear are suggestions to tweak the deductions mining takes.

Although the Senate majority leader has backed off it, some noise has been made about a corporate income tax. That might seem attractive since chains like Home Depot or Walmart pay no corporate taxes here but charge the same for items as they do in neighboring states. Certainly such a tax wouldn't cause Home Depot to move. However, can we be certain that such a tax would not drive intangible companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Intuit to move their operations to tax-friendly sites such as the Cayman Islands, like Google has done?

There have been suggestions that the sales tax should extend to "services." Well, that makes sense since services now account for something like 80 percent of U.S. business activities. However, we know that such a tax would be administratively complex, so would someone please tell me what this tax would look like? And soon?

Speaking for myself, I would not recommend any consideration of new taxes unless serious reforms are undertaken. The governor's budget makes a few bold steps in that direction, but we really need to implement the recommendations of the SAGE commission, particularly regarding government compensation and employee bargaining tools. And yes, the state must negotiate with the federal government regarding the Yucca Nuclear Waste Repository, which is likely to be forced on us regardless.

There is no excuse for further dawdling on the revenue issues. The proponents of new taxes are well aware of what they intend to suggest, but inexplicitly will likely wait until the last minute of this session to unveil them. And that is too bad, because it will deprive the voting public of the debate that is badly needed regarding our fiscal crisis.

• Tyrus W. Cobb, former Special Assistant to President Reagan