Monday Musings: March 28. 2011

I write this powered by ginger ale. As regular readers might’ve noticed, there wasn’t a Friday Fish Wrap this week, since yours truly was laid very low by your friendly gastroenteritis - aka Norovirus. The mere idea of sitting upright, at the computer, made my stomach turn. It was horrible, but I’m sorta, kinda back up and running - just not on all cylinders.

Queasy tummies are not helped by the day’s news headlines.

Like this morning, when I found myself in agreement with Bill O’Reilly on Libya. That would’ve sent me reaching for ginger ale on a good day.

Here’s the Maven’s take on Libya: This isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan. Up to now, it’s been apples and oranges. There was not, apparently, time to dither. Qaddafi was, reportedly, about to make good on an insane promise to commit mass murder - PDQ. A ‘No-Fly Zone’ was crafted in short order - by  U.N. resolution and NATO coalition of which we are a part. Last time I checked, simply declaring a ‘No-Fly Zone’ doesn’t make it one. Some enforcement is called for. As I understood it, the ‘goal’ was to prevent imminent - as in ‘any moment now’-  harm to thousands of people. And to throw a bit of breathing space around Benghazi.

“Authorizes Member States that have notified the Secretary-General, acting nationally or through regional organizations or arrangements, and acting in cooperation with the Secretary-General, to take all necessary measures … to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory, and requests the Member States concerned to inform the Secretary-General immediately of the measures they take pursuant to the authorization conferred by this paragraph which shall be immediately reported to the Security Council” (emphasis mine.)

Although I’m not a Constitutional scholar - like say, Sharron Angle - I’m okay with giving the President a temporary pass on this one in regard to Presidential War Powers. Are we ‘at war’? Did we declare war on Libya? Are there boots on the ground ala Lebanon or Somalia? I must of missed that. I thought it was more of a quick strike police action sponsored by the UN and prosecuted by NATO. We are a part of NATO. Now, the French and others of the coalition have seemingly taken the lead - which was the intention all along as I understood it.

I get ‘mission creep’, and the very real fears in Congress of an erosion of their Constitutional power to ‘declare war’. It’s now time for Mr. Obama to come to the American people and Congress to make his case. For any actions going forward from this point, I think Congress has every right to assume it’s Constitutional authority under Article 1, Section 8.

As I said the other day, people from both the right and left - most notably Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-OH - need to take a deep breath. Let’s listen in on Monday night. Let the man make his case, and then move on with deliberate speed.

Or, as my late father used to say: “Stop. Back up, and proceed with caution.” Words to live by.

Now, on to the Nevada Budget Theatre. Act II - Mining for Deductions.

In this mornings Reno Gazette-Journal, Tim Crowley, President of the Nevada Mining Association, sent me reeling for yet more ginger ale. “Nevada mining has been an active participant in helping to solve Nevada’s fiscal issues”. On which planet?

Mr. Crowley has been listening too much to Gov. Brian Sandoval - or is it the other way around? Yessir, there is a sliding scale of 2 to 5 percent of Net Proceeds of Mineral Tax. Yup. It’s mandated by the Nevada Constitution. Then Mr. Crowley goes on to explain how hard and expensive it is to get all those itsy-bitsy flecks of gold and other minerals out of the spaces between grains of sand.

Wow. And yet, despite this difficulty, Nevada’s mining companies still somehow managed to walk away with BILLIONS. And pay nada, zero, zip in the way of any portion of that 5 percent. You can audit this until the cows come back home, and they’ll explain that “it’s the deductions, stupid!”

Pad enough tax deductions into any tax rate and you’ll end up paying zero taxes. This is what companies like all-American General Electric have done so well … leaving you and me to pick up their share. We may not have hundreds of tax attorneys at our beck and call, but we weren’t born yesterday - well the TeaBaggers were, but that’s another story.

The hands down best research and scholarship on this has been done by The Las Vegas Gleaner - It’s not the audits, it the deductions … - where he points out that 111 times in the last 10 years, the mining industry, although managing to squeak out of the state with a mere $4.3 BILLION in minerals, paid nada, zip, nothing in taxes on those minerals. As the price of gold skyrocketed to historic levels.

Here’s how the Gleaner stated it:

 
”- From 2000 through 2007, the mining industry in Nevada extracted and sold gold
worth $25.5 billion, and paid taxes to the state general fund totaling $125.3
million, an effective gross state tax rate of one-half of one percent.  
 
- Mine owners are allowed to write off expenses as deductions. Over the last
eight years, the Nevada mining industry has deducted 79 percent of the value of
gold production, and paid taxes only on the value of the remaining 21 percent.
 
- In any given year from 2000 through 2007, one-third to one-half of all the
mines operating in the state produced gold worth hundreds of millions of dollars
but reported zero taxable proceeds.
 
- Nevada’s two largest gold mines, the Barrick Goldstrike mine and Newmont’s
Carlin Trend project, have reported zero taxable values during years when the
mines have produced gold worth a half billion dollars or more.
 
- While the 5 percent Net Proceeds of Minerals (NPOM) tax rate is written in the
Nevada Constitution and would take years to change, the deductions by which the
mining industry avoids so much taxation are written in state statutes (NRS
362.120) and can be eliminated through legislation, raising tens and possibly
hundreds of millions of dollars for the state budget as early as the next biennium.” Las Vegas Gleaner

You have expenses. I have expenses. Somehow they just don’t add up to zero taxes - at least ours didn’t this year.

When I moved to Nevada, I realized that I might be moving in with people that were cynical, greedy and were here to avoid paying their share somewhere else. What I didn’t realize was that I was also moving in with people who were amazingly, profoundly stupid - as in letting the mining companies walk away leaving us all holding the bag for the rent.

Meanwhile, Nevadan’s elect ninnies like the bobble-headed Brian Sandoval to mouth morally satisfying deficit reduction, cutting and saving platitudes while making excuses about how highway robbery by mining is simply ‘the law’. He might as well have told Jon Ralston “Hey, Jon … it is what it is”, got up, tore off the ‘mike’ … throw it down and walk off the set for dramatic effect. I could have respected him for that.

But shit rolls downhill. What the Bizarro World GOP/TeaBagger Party hath wrought in Washington, holding the wimpy Dems hostage to their warped fiscal worldview, pushes the pain down to the beleaguered states, who - as in Nevada - would push it further to the cities and counties.

Lyon County is in a world of hurt, leading the way among Nevada counties in the pain parade. A report from Moody’s Investors Service, a rating agency, noted the trend, saying that states are “increasingly pushing down their problems.” They continued, saying that this coming year would be the “toughest year for local governments since the economic downturn began.”

What the citizens of Nevada need to do is ask Gov. Sandoval, and Tim Crowley, how far they plan on pushing down the state’s problems before facing reality? I mean, what happens when they get to the bottom?

Other Stuff.

Sharron Angle is back. She reminds me of the crazy relative. Every family has one. This is the one (usually with an ‘substance abuse’ problem) who shows up at family events - and everybody holds their collective breath hoping against hope that she doesn’t make a scene. Of course, if you’re me … I’m hoping for the opposite, under the banner of always having something to blog about.

Concealed Weapons on Nevada Campuses? WTF? Are they crazy? Answer: See above discussion about mining taxes. Talk about a tragedy waiting to happen.

Spending a Day With NPR. Friday, I was actually too sick to watch television or read. So I just left NPR on low in the background for the whole day, as the cat lay wrapped around my head. Now I understand why the GOP wants to gut their funding. It’s because NPR actually has a lot of content that is A) Fascinating, B) Professional, C) Fair and Balanced, D) Engaging, Entertaining and Educational,  E) Relavant and F) Highly addicting. In other words, everything that regular radio isn’t. Somebody tell Rush Limbaugh.

The Weather. I’m so over this winter. I’ve also had more than enough of the wind howling around the house, sounding like the roof is coming off any moment.

Psychic Fair. When the weather turns warm and sunny, I’ll be looking foward to turning a Skeptical eye to the upcoming Reno Psychic Fair. Maybe they can look into the Tarot Cards or chicken guts and divine just how Gov. Sandoval can find the money to balance the budget, feed the hungry, fight fires, keep the lights on in the university system, educate the little children - all without raising taxes, even on mining.

Maybe I’ll get a ‘reading’ and let you know.

Cheers.

-maven

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When is the psychic fair? We MUST go. Call me!