Sometimes intelligent people do dumb things. The recent decision by the Nevada State Education Association (NSEA) to make a non-binding deal with only three casino operators to support a room tax for teachers’ salaries is the dumbest political deal I ever heard of.
The Teachers Association circulated a petition to raise the state gaming tax by three percent. According to Teachers Association president Lynn Warne. Enough signatures were gathered to present to the 17 respective counties. No doubt, the petition would have been declared “sufficient” and placed on the ballot for voter approval in November.
Instead, Warne trashed the signatures, the petition, and the dedicated hard work of the teachers who collected the signatures. Why? Well, once Steve Wynn, Station Casinos and Harrah’s realized the petition would reach the ballot box and their three percent tax increase was inevitable, they offered Warne a deal for room tax if she would forget about the gaming tax initiative. Evidently, she couldn’t refuse.
In exchange for a guaranteed ballot question that would have increased the gaming tax, she agreed to a non-binding deal with Steve Wynn. The agreement calls for each county in the state to place a simple advisory question on the ballot. If voters in every county are in favor of the increase in room tax, it would be voted on by the legislature in 2009. The increase would require a two-thirds vote. In other words, she took the decision out of the hands of the voters and placed it in the laps of the legislature controlled by Republican Senator Bill Raggio and influenced by the gaming industry. Wow! What a deal.
Warne made a deal with the wrong parties. Major casino companies are strongly divided on any increase in room tax and especially, the 13 percent cap proposed in the legislation. MGM Mirage. Boyd Gaming and the Las Vegas Sands announced publicly they are opposed to any increase in the room tax and will probably challenge the proposed increase. Combined, they could defeat any effort by the legislature to increase the tourist tax.
Currently, downtown Reno and Sparks have a 13.5 percent room tax and the rest of Washoe County has a 12 percent rate. The Las Vegas strip receives 9 percent compared to 10 percent in downtown Las Vegas. Obviously, the bulk of the new room tax revenue will originate in Clark County the home of Steve Wynn, stations casino and Harrah’s. I’m sure all the resort properties in Las Vegas feel they dodged the bullet. Thanks to Lynn Warne.
The Teachers Association should have negotiated with the Nevada Resort Association. Without their approval the room tax issue is dead in the water. With the resort association’s endorsement the room tax would have been guaranteed. Now the association members can play good cop-bad cop and the teachers won’t get a thing.
The real Death Nell for the teachers came from two of the state’s “Big” Republicans. Governor Gibbons and Sen. Bill Raggio expressed their skepticism. They were quoted as saying they would consider a room tax increase up to 13 percent if the voters were in favor of it. Sure, they might consider it for a second, but they won’t approve it. Which means the teachers, thanks to Lynn Warne, will never get their room tax.
The Press and politicians continue to refer to the Teachers Association as a teachers “union.” It is not a union. One of the main differences being: unions have the power to strike – associations do not. Being a right to work state officials use the word“ union” in a negative context when they refer to the teachers as a union.
However, if the teachers did have a union with the power to strike, they wouldn’t have to make back room deals, genuflect before the legislature and kiss the Republican ring of Sen. Bill Raggio.
As members of a union the deal that Warne made with a few powerful gaming and resort companies would have been voted on by all the members and probably wouldn’t have been ratified. Instead, the teachers, Lynn Warne and their association were snookered by Raggio, Gaming and the Nevada Resort Association.
