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The teachers’ tax will destroy the gaming industry and leave the Strip in ruins
Discussion: 20 comments so far...
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No doubt the education establishment should have tried for a broad based business tax.
Casinos can pay more, but so can every business in the state. A small amount from many will actually create more than taking a lot from a few. Teachers union is out of line on this one, and I happen to be a teacher.
Business is and always has been the best for gaming in Vegas in comparison to all other location in the world. They are now investing in Macau where they pay a whooping 40% compared to our less than 7%. They use this very same argument when the unions try to raise the wages (don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg). You have to wonder why they invest in all the other places besides Vegas, when all those other places cost them more in gaming tax?
Our children are number one. Does Steve Wynn make more than everyone in Vegas? I don't see anyone complain about all the millions he makes that he couldn't probably spend in a life time. If we had one of the highest wages in education, rather than one of the lowest, we might be able to attract seasoned veteran teachers rather than rookies. Funny we have the 3 highest paid police Departments in the nation (ranking Henderson first,North Vegas and then LVMPD). A Metro cop starts at $56 dollars an hour after probation with no college degree and you don't hear anyone complain about that? If we had better teachers and schools it would be a positive impact on lowering crime......much more so than giving loads of money to the cops!
Two comments:
To the previous commentor: An errors in your opinion. Casinos are not paying 40% gaming tax in Macau. They pay 3-12%, 12% is the maximum. Source: http://www.gaminglawmasters.com/articles...
This is important because the current gaming tax is 6.75%, and proposed to be raised to 9.75% (source: http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story....), a figure that comes close to the Macau percentage. However, with no unions and low fixed costs, operating in Macau is more profitable for the major hotels. Which means they could just pick up and move... and with 43% of the state's general fund being provided by the current state gaming tax, Las Vegas, and Nevada, faces quite a hit (source: http://www.lvol.com/lvoleg/hist/lvhist.h...)
Point two: Why not increase a business tax? Did you know that businesses currently pay NO corporate income taxes?? (source: http://www.nvinc.com/incorporateinnevada...) I am a frustrated Las Vegas resident who is appauled at the influx of business migrants from California who are fleeing from the 15-35% tax rates (source: http://www.weblocator.com/attorney/ca/la...). Businesses should do their part in our community, not rely solely on the big guys to do all the heavy lifting.
Or how about increasing the percentage of the state fund that goes towards public education? Currently, the state funds pays out only 34%. But Oregon, with a similar population size, pays out 53% (source: http://bluebook.state.or.us/education/ed...) and has much better results in test scores. Perhaps we should be asking our legislature: How much is education worth? Just as the last commentor said, if we invested more in the education, crime rates would fall naturally.
All other state's gaming pay more than us. The hotels have all the clot, run the state, are the biggest political campaign contributors. The hotels make billions more than any other business and it is as obvious as the nose on your face they can afford an extra 3% and won't be packing up and leaving those huge fancy buildings over a 3% hike. If they have to tighten up maybe Lanni and Wynn should take a few million less for themselves. Face it they are the state cash cow, fat with money they save by paying poor wages and terrible benefits. Wynn is so greedy he wants dealers to share their tips with his bosses, so he can pay them less. I've lived in Vegas 47 years and when the economy get bad Vegas booms. The hotels pick your candidates by funding them using PACs which are just a way to funnel millions so they control politics. I researched Circus Circus years ago and they where calling all the pit bosses PACs. they have had it all thier way for years!
While it's true that NV does not impose a tax on business profits, it *does* tax businesses based on the wages they pay each quarter, so the implication that non-gaming businesses are getting a free ride is respectfully incorrect.
why is it iam told the increase tax will give a better education and reduce crime when the money is primarily going for salary increases to the teachers where is the data that supports this claim that salary increases will reduce crime.
most school systems i've seen have slaries of 35,000 to 40,000 dollars per year based on that then these teachers are making $22.50 an hour based on a 1560 hour year. not to mention the retirement and medical insurance they receive for the entire year, most people have to work a 2080 hour year. this is a pay raise and nothing more.
It seems strange that the "report" on the proposed gaming tax was created by Deutsche Bank. Duetsche Bank owns securities and has received compensation from the major gaming companies. It's all there in the disclosures on the link.
This report also states that casino workers have a lower average compensation than teachers. Does the average casino worker have a bachelor's or master's degree? Why don't we look at the annual compensation for gaming employees using their college degrees? That would seem much more appropriate.
Do you pay a physician, manager, or technician less because the people or equipment they work with is challenging? Conventional wisdom would suggest that higher compensation should be commensurate with greater challenges. There is little that is more challenging than educating today's youth.
How would an industry cope with a situation where there is little to no control over the quality and type of raw materials used to make its products? Even the best of technicians would find it difficult to produce the quality of product everyone wants. Educators are faced with virtually the same situation. The difference is that in the field of education, teachers must do what they can to improve on the raw material that enters their doors. The results are often mixed. We can expect better, and lots of times get it. However, there cannot be a realistic expectation of nothing but high performance products across the board.
A beginning teacher should be making close to 50K annually. There are teachers in Nevada with more than twenty years on the books making less than that. The tax is not just about attracting experienced teachers, it is about retaining those already doing their job. What we should be concerned with is that the lion's share of the proposed tax goes directly to teacher's salaries and to the students. We don't need it all going to facilities and administrative overhead. The teachers and the students should receive the lion's share of this tax.
1 - The casinos/gaming industry dose not want educated people. They need non educated people to work in their casinos. Educated people required better working conditions; better pay, better benefits, better treatment by the management, better job stability. Casinos need those uneducated people. They need uneducated people to fill all the grunt jobs required to run a large hotel/casino. The statistic is something like they need 5 workers for every room they build, right. All these families that move into town are not being haired as managers or VP’s.
Walt Disney World room tax is (aprox)12.5%
NY City Room Tax (aprox) 13.5%
2 - The casinos/hotels bring a large majority of people/families in to this valley. They should be held accountable in keeping up the infrastructure, not only at the level it was but to help it continue to grow to be able to support all the new homes and families that they have brought here.
I worked in a strip hotel/casino. The hourly pay was OK but it was like being a child again. We had to raised our hand and ask to go to the bathroom. We got in trouble if kids or family called to talk to us. It was like we were in detention. Some times I worked 40 hours and other weeks I had no hours. They treat you like a commodity not like a person who has commitments and families.
They should be paying more to help our community fund education!
To the person that said teachers work 1550 hrs.
I have two daughters that teach, they chose it because they want to make a difference and therfor are compelled to make less because of greedy guys like Wynn. They work on average 9 and a half hours a day. Teachers get to school early and leave late. Teachers buy the soap for kids, pencils, paper, note pads, books, learning tools (posters and diagrams). Teachers are all about love and mentoring your kids. It is a noble profession. The hotels never seem to be satisfied, always fighting the unions that try to raise wages, always buying our politicians. The hotels gravy train is going to have to fork out something this time. No doubt, there are more parents like me than greedy guys like Wynn. I really liked the post about hotels wanting ignorant workers. Ever notice how they hire a lot of Orientals? These people work hard, but most importantly they don't read english, vote or organize. Its all about money for Wynn, my kids are so much better people than this greedy man.
^^ "Ever notice how they hire a lot of Orientals?"
Excuse me, but "Orientals" is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-Americans, please.
Shame on me. I'm Italian. I'm also Italian American. This really doesn't have much to do with the thread nor is it worth writing about or reading. I think Ralston should remove both this post and the one above.
MGM made $872 million in the most recent 3 month quarter, reported Feb 22. The last three months.
They can afford to pay a bit more in taxes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/busine...
Teacher drop out rate: After 3 years, 1/3 of new teachers leave the field; after 5 years, almost half of those new teachers have left. In inner city schools, 1/2 of the teachers quit within 3 years. The real problem is not too few teachers entering the profession, it is too many leaving. (Dept of Ed.)
Low salaries are driving some of the highly qualified teachers away. Why is it so hard to understand? I am guessing 80% of the workers in a casino do not need a college education for employment. Teachers must finish 4 to 5 years of college in order to secure a license to teach. Salaries must increase or Nevada will not have teachers at all. Wyoming is looking better every day.
Many Wyoming districts pay $45,000 base pay for teachers with an ending salary in the mid $80,000 range. They pay for doctoral degrees, Nevada doesn't. In Jackson Hole, they subsidize housing expenses. I love Nevada, but the Gibbons just doesn't get it!
Maybe instead of focusing on one industry over another perhaps their should be a state wide income tax for all workers deemed educated or un educated.
And i never would imply that teaching is not honorable.
daezeedook as a small business owner here in Las Vegas I would like to assure you that we all pay federal income taxes...Take me for example I am an S corporation and all taxes are passed through to me as an individual...So my personal tax level is probably much higher than yours...In California is would act the same way...I would pay a maximum of 10% on the money (NOT 25-30%)....If you like in these bad economic times I could just shut my doors and put the 7 people I employee out of business and stop sending in my 250,000 in sales tax....People like you are way to short sighted...You must be a liberal....Business creates jobs, taxes destroy them...We just need to learn to use our resources more wisely...We don't need better funding for schools we just need teachers that will do what we pay them to do...Apparently our teachers don't teach as well as they could because we don't pay them enough...Our per pupil spending is directly proportional to teachers salaries..None of our students are without books....And wow guess what 2 of the 3 school districts that spend a bunch less than us score way higher on tests.... This is insane...We need better values among the parents...That is the real reason our students fail tests....Without students being pushed at home no amount of money in the world will fix the problem....
Re: Teacher drop out rate..
The teacher drop out rate is actually a lot higher for clark county:
More like 85% leave within 5 years?
Many teachers have large student loans that avg 50k. There is no way I can pay off my student loans and pay for a 300k mortgage on a teachers 37k salary.
If you want highly qualified teachers then raise the pay, if you want low qualified teachers then don't raise the pay, keep the status quo.
Pay is by far the primary reason teachers leave. The school district knows this but continues to ignore the issue. This has been identified in their own studies on teacher retention.
Teachers that started 4 years ago get modest salary increases per year avg 3% yet the new hires were getting enticed with higher salaries by moving the new hires up on the salary chart. So new hires were making the same as 3-4 yr veterans.
Too bad the union has been in bed with CCSD for so many years, for example they had negotiated salaries through 2009 and starting teachers will still make about 37k two years from now.
Newer teachers quickly learn to get their experience and then move onto a appreciative district with decent pay.
It is unfortunate that teachers only earn PERS retirement only after putting in 5 years of service. The state is saving a lot of money by having teachers leave before 5 years. Also the CCSD saves a lot of money by relying on substitutes who are paid a lot less then full time permanent hires.
Low salaries are driving some of the highly qualified teachers away. Why is it so hard to understand? I am guessing 80% of the workers in a casino do not need a college education for employment. Teachers must finish 4 to 5 years of college in order to secure a license to teach. Salaries must increase or Nevada will not have teachers at all. Wyoming is looking better every day.
Many Wyoming districts pay $45,000 base pay for teachers with an ending salary in the mid $80,000 range. They pay for doctoral degrees, Nevada doesn't. In Jackson Hole, they subsidize housing expenses. I love Nevada, but the Gibbons just doesn't get it!
You know.....if a teacher's only interest is money......then maybe they should move to Wyoming. There are many other factors as to why teacher's don't stay, income is not always the only issue. A sense of community to begin with. Also, maybe instead of throwing money at teachers with the absurd thinking that this will make them better teachers.......maybe we need to split this huge district into 2 or 3. Maybe having smaller districts will allow for better management and an increased ability to know what different schools and different pupils really need.
One point in this article which seems to me to be ridiculous and the casino/business community should quit trying to use......is comparing compensation between teachers and casino employees. While I'm sure managers at the casinos need some college (maybe even more than "some"), the vast majority of casino workers are not required to have college educations to work there. So, this is not a true comparison.
You need to stay focused Oliver. Higher wages doesn't make better teachers. Higher wages will attract better teachers from other areas. Higher wages will also prevent a shortage of 600 teachers as has happened in the recent past. Teachers also are forced to teach larger amounts of kids in a class when there are shortages of teachers, which cause a lot of stress and neglect of students.
FROM OUR READERS: Raising the gaming tax a matter of fairness
By KERMITT L. WATERS
SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL
I apparently am the only person who can get Sherman Frederick, the publisher of the Review-Journal, and Brian Greenspun, the editor of the Las Vegas Sun and also a casino owner, to agree on anything: specifically, whether casinos in Nevada need to pay more in gaming taxes.
But, if we as Nevadans do not at least ask why casinos cry poverty in Nevada and try to convince us with their expensive media campaign that they cannot afford to pay more than a 6.75 percent gaming tax here when they willingly pay as high as 30 percent in Macau, or 35 percent in Indiana, and even more in Illinois, then all of us in Nevada deserve to be called mush heads.
In fact, these gaming companies seem driven to build casinos all over the United States and the world with billions of dollars of money taken out of Nevada. Go to their Web site, www.americangaming.org/Industry/state/st..., and verify what they pay in other states if you don't believe me.
It doesn't take an Einstein to realize that 6.75 percent is less than 30 percent, or 35 percent, or even that it is less than the average tax that our casinos willingly pay in other states.
To illustrate further, we minions pay a 7.75 percent sales tax in Clark County, and yet the multibillion-dollar casinos in Nevada pay only a 6.75 percent gross gaming tax. They have avoided for years a fair tax, as they control the Legislature.
For example, how were they able to persuade the Legislature to effectively exempt golf courses from taxation in 2005? If that is not enough abuse, the few independent members of the Legislature tried to unwind this scam in the last session but backed down when the governor threatened a veto. You see what I mean.
Many Nevadans are losing their homes now. Removing all property taxes on residential homes seems more than fair. After all, we don't own our own homes, we rent them from the government.
I am an old-fashioned Democrat, and I feel like a fish out of water in today's political climate. I detest government waste and taxes and will join you any time to abolish most broken government agencies and departments as a total waste of money.
But this gaming tax needs adjusting, and that is a matter of fundamental fairness. Nevada is the mother of the now multibillion-dollar casino industry. Is this any way to treat your mother?
Have we had enough abuse? No wonder they brag that what happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas -- except the money they take from us, which ends up going to the other states and China.
Kermitt L. Waters is preparing the Tax Fairness Reform Initiative, which would increase the state gaming tax and eliminate property taxes for owner-occupied homes.
Please...Can we be more creative in problem solving than just throwing money into black holes? It's hard to respect those officials who do nothing but whine about $! It's called creative problem solving and critical thinking skills, educators1