The BOMA Nevada Legislative Affairs Committee exists to inform BOMA members of the issues that face their businesses at all levels of government, and to participate in policy formulation as it relates to our industry.
This web page will serve as an informational tool, and as a way for members to actively participate in the process. The links provided at the side of the page will allow you to:
1. Follow news items that affect Building Owners and Managers
2. Learn who your representatives are and how to contact them
3. Keep abreast of the political issues of the day
4. Find other websites that have related information
Issues for August 24th 2009:
Federal
Health Care Reform is the issue of the day, and the results of the fight in Washington D.C. will have far reaching effects on our Country and your business. There are 4 different proposals being discussed (3 in the House, 1 in the Senate), and putting all the partisan rhetoric aside, if the changes being proposed are enacted the main thing for small business is that you will have to have a plan that conforms to government standards or put your employees on the government option and pay an 8% payroll tax. The administration is contending that the government option will increase competition and bring down cost. Opponents believe that a government plan would force all but the very wealthy onto the government option and ultimately bankrupt the system (the Congressional Budget Office estimate the government plan will cost 1 trillion Dollars over 10 years). Most business groups, including BOMA International and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, believe that tort reform, limiting punitive damages in law suits, and allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines, would create a competitive environment that would bring down costs. Business groups are basically afraid that once the government gets control of the industry they will not run it well, and any of the problems that we see in the system today will be made worse, not better. To go into the details of the fight would not be possible in this space, but the “Friends of the U.S. Chamber” website has great information on both sides of this issue.
Cap and Trade- You probably thought this had gone away but it has not. The backers of this plan to cap carbon emissions, and, in essence, limit energy output in this country thereby increasing its’ cost to all of us, have simply stopped talking about it so the opposition to it would die down. However, you can expect it to be front and center again sometime this fall. The following link is a short analysis of the bill and its’ impact on Nevada.
http://www.heritage.org/research/energyandenvironment/wm2585-NV.cfm
This analysis was done without factoring in the likelihood that the limits would be reset lower over time. Even the most pessimistic among us probably believe that Nevada will be coming out of the current downturn by 2012. The last thing we will need at that time is a jobs killer. I also encourage you to look at some of the estimates concerning the impact of these limits on warming. Even the promoters of the program admit that it will have very little effect if any at all. So the question is- why?
State
The Budget, The Budget, The Budget- It is now considered very likely that the Governor will have to call a special session to account for the decrease in tax collections as a result of the economic down turn. The leadership in the legislature is preparing an interim study that is aimed at revamping the tax structure for our state. They are saying that our system is unstable and want to add a business income tax to help alleviate the problem. They will get what they want if they are successful in the 2010 elections, because non- tax hikers are completely outnumbered in Carson City. So unless something is done by the business community in the next 15 months to shift the balance of power, we can expect to shoulder the lions’ share of an estimated 2 billion dollar tax increase. That is on top of the 1 billion implemented in July. By the way, the tax structure that they are looking at is eerily similar to what has been in place in California for quite some time. I am not so sure that that has worked out well for them.