Several more plans added to potential tax mix

Ideas including a tax on live entertainment and another on financial institutions were batted around in a Senate Taxation Committee before members broke until Thursday without making a decision.

Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, who last week presented a series of tax proposals including a property tax that would primarily hit owners of lavish homes and big business, proposed five new ideas for the committee. That included a Universal Business Tax, which he said would raise $75 million next year and $140 million the year after that. But he said he has no details on how the tax would work yet.

His business license surcharge would hit all businesses with a 1 percent tax on their taxable wages paid to workers, generating as much as $90 million next year. The levy would exempt businesses with less than 25 employees. A similar levy on the financial industry would generate another $24 million.

And Townsend proposed a $200 a year business license tax that would generate about $81 million. But he proposed exempting those companies that provide health insurance coverage for their workers.

Finally, he proposed a 5 percent tax on all live entertainment, except for charitable events and trade shows. That would replace the 10 percent casino entertainment tax, but would apply to all sorts of events that are not now taxed and generate $25 million a year, he said.

Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, followed Townsend with a proposal for a 7 percent excise tax on financial institutions. He pointed out that California banks already pay more than that and haven't gone broke.

He called for an excise tax on businesses that sell tangible personal property beginning at 5 hundredths of a percent for businesses grossing less than $1 million and rising to a maximum of 2 percent for businesses grossing over $10 million a year.

Both senators admitted their proposals need to be fleshed out. Townsend said his plan didn't come together until a couple of hours before the committee meeting. He said he was still waiting for details on the universal business tax.

Schneider said he didn't have spreadsheets saying how much his proposals would generate and had just received the bill draft before coming to the committee.

The committee has already tentatively approved a list of tax ideas, including a gaming tax hike, real estate transfer tax, services tax, and property tax increase. But they haven't yet voted on a plan to present to the full Senate.

Taxation Chairman Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, said they would take up the entire list of proposals at Thursday's committee meeting.