The Silver State, land of the toke and home of the vice, has gone goo-goo over the tax and tourism potential of the demon weed.
Alas, another bonanza is staring us in the face and nobody has noticed. Once again, the Barbwire must categorize the obvious and illuminate the vision thing.
Experts on all sides of the issue say Joe Biden’s favorite Supreme Court Justice, Loathsome Lonesome Clarence, now has enough company in black robe land to assassinate Roe vs. Wade outright by the same 5-4 margin that gave us Bush the Lesser and a bushel of endless wars.
Nevada lawmakers may have ignored payday loan victims but they are busy-busy-busy tweaking Nevada abortion law.
In 1990, Nevada voters passed Question 7, locking a state version of Roe vs. Wade into state statute. It cannot be changed without another general election vote.
The Supremes can wipe out Roe vs. Wade and thus let states do their thing all the way to the death penalty for mothers and doctors.
Nevada could then become America’s abortion tourism mecca. Women not able to get any kind of health care in their own punitive Puritanical backwaters (already the case in most of the country) could come here for all manner of professional help. Hotels can offer Nevada FemCare Club (Trade Mark pending) Cards so that visitors may direct state and local taxes on products and services they use toward a humanitarian fund to help more victims of our reality TV version of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Play slots, the gross gaming tax goes to the health fund. Car rentals. Restaurant meals. T-shirts. All taxes earmarked to benefit women’s rights.
Nevada casinos and businesses already pioneered a version. Special taxing districts allow casinos to use their taxes to promote their businesses through convention and visitors authorities, starving schools parks, roads and first responders.
Nevada would not exist as we know it save for government-created enterprises. Silver State gamblers pay the lowest major casino taxes in the world. We extract no personal income tax, which makes us a shelter for wealthy post office box renters. Foreign mining companies plunder our mineral wealth and pay no royalty or impact fees. We build free sports stadia (Oakland Raiders, Reno Aceholes) to billionaires who can well afford them while the peasants can’t find a one-bedroom hovel because of all the tax breaks given to the likes of Tesla, Apple, Switch, Cabela’s and Scheels.
Nevada’s list of tax freebies has grown from an 11-page spreadsheet to a half-inch thick bound book.
I won’t make the next logical ridiculous juxtaposition about combining family planning tourism with marijuana opium dens. Pregnant women should not get near any kind of smoke.
SPEAKING OF TOURISM ABERRATIONS. Look who just gave $398,500 to the Republican Party: Steve Wynn, disgraced casino magnate and legendary Nevada corporate welfare queen (remember his personal art collection tax subsidy?)
COLLEGIATE CONUNDRUMS. Billionaire financier Robert Smith did a wonderful thing last week in announcing a $40 million grant to Atlanta’s Morehouse College, MLK’s alma mater. He will thus pick up the tab for 396 just-graduated seniors at the historically black institution. (That label will soon no longer apply to the nation’s HBCU’s which are increasingly diverse.)
I certainly hope Mr. Smith is including tax advice with his tax-deductible largesse. Forgiven debt counts as regular income. I’d hate to see many of the grads merely having transferred their debt to another collection agency, namely the IRS. The school’s financial assistance office should be used to parcel out the money as annual non-taxable gifts of $15,000 or less.
African-American students graduate with debt 32 percent higher than others. Nationally, students owe $1.5 TRILLION (with a capital T), more than any other type of consumer loan.
Penalizing education is a great way to keep the aspiring as undereducated, low-wage workers. In that area, stingy Nevada casinos are way ahead of the rest of corporate America.
CROW DEPT. When I make a mistake, I own it and eat it. Two local librarians informed me last week that Sparks’ Kate Smith Elementary School was not named for singer Kate (Katherine Elizabeth) Smith of “God Bless America” fame, just defrocked by the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Flyers for recently revealed racist recordings.
The longtime Sparks school was named for local educator Kate E. Smith. I apologize and sincerely regret my error. Mea maxima culpa.
Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.
Leave a Reply