Casinos in Nevada pay tax on the gambling revenue they earn at a rate of 6.75%. However, the Clark County Education Association (CCEA) feels that the gaming venues in Nevada should be giving up more to the government.
The authorities are of the opinion that entertainment companies of this caliber and class earn abnormal profits and shouldn’t pocket everything. According to a report by CalvinAyre.com, the group has already begun laying strategies to see that the gaming venues pay more tax. In the new tax proposal, the casinos will be paying tax at a rate of 9.75%, which is a 40% increase from what they are currently paying.
For the proposal to be passed into law, it will have to undergo several legislative processes. First CCEA will have to get at least 10% of the registered voters to sign a petition by November 18 of this year.
If they are lucky enough and manage to garner more than 97,598, this being the least number of signatures required before then, the proposal will then be reviewed by the 2021 legislature. If the legislature approves the proposal, it will be added in the 2022 ballot, for the final decision by the voters.
As would be expected, the proposal is already receiving lots of opposition from casinos in Nevada. The area casinos are not only against the tax increment but are also against the tactics CCEA is using to solicit voters to support the proposal. One detail that appears to make the companies even more worried is that the signatories have of late seem to bent towards the side of their opposers.
According to the Nevada Resort Association, CCEA is planning to add information on the ballot entry that is misleading to the public. One such information is that the extra money collected will be channeled towards the state’s education fund. NRA has disputed this claim saying that the extra money would go to the state’s general fund, from where only a small amount would be pulled for the betterment of the education sector.
Another error on the ballot entry is the timeframe within which the new tax will start to be collected. The ballot entry indicates that the new tax proposal will take effect as from January 2023, something that NRA has refuted.
According to the NRA, once the new proposal is approved by the voters, it would take about 38 days for the proposal to take effect. It is during this time that the proposal will undergo several processes with the green light from the state’s Supreme Court being the final step.
It is against these accusations that the NRA has moved to court suing CCEA in an effort to stop them from moving forward. CCEA does not seem affected by the lawsuit as it is moving forward with a collection of signatures. In its case file, NRA has stated that it is the right of every voter to have the correct information with them. It is the responsibility of the court to ensure that this right is upheld.
