CARSON CITY, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) -- The Nevada State Education Association is backing a proposed business margin tax. The two percent tax would affect businesses making more than a million dollars a year.
While no one wants more taxes, supporters say we need the 800 million dollars a year it could generate for Nevada schools.
"This is the nature of taxes," NSEA president Lynne Warne said. "People don't like them. I don't like them."
But Warne said taxes are a necessary evil.
"Because without the investment of taxes we can not hope to prosper," Warne said.
She said the 2 percent tax is just that - an investment.
"What it is is a fair way to require businesses in Nevada to invest in their future workforce," Warne said.
And invest Nevada students' success, which AFL-CIO head Danny Thompson said is overdue.
"With the lowest graduation rate in the country, we have the highest secondary classroom sizes in America, and you can draw a line straight to this problem," Thompson said.
What is the problem? Thompson says it's money.
"We have never thrown money at education ever in this state," Thompson said. "We don't fund it to the national average and we're paying the price today."
A price he said will cost us much more than 2 percent.
"I know people are going to come up here and say if you make me pay more, I'm [going to] leave the state," Thompson said. "Well leave, as far as I'm concerned."
After presentations the floor opened to see what people would say and public comment was mixed.
The public may very well be who decides whether or not this margin tax happens. If the legislature doesn't pass it by March 15, it will be on the ballot for the November 2014 election.
