Committee OKs breaks for banks

CARSON CITY -- A bill repealing a $7,000-per-year bank franchise fee and rolling back the modified business tax on financial institutions passed the Senate Taxation Committee on Thursday.

Senate Bill 233, sought by Sen. Joe Heck, R-Henderson, would roll back the modified business tax paid by financial institutions -- now at 2 percent -- by 0.33 percent per year until it was reduced to the same 0.63 percent rate paid by other Nevada businesses.

If approved by the Legislature, the state general fund would see a $33 million reduction in revenue from the levy changes for the two years of the upcoming budget. The measure, which also would include keeping the modified business tax rate at 0.63 percent, would take effect on Jan. 1, 2008.

Voting no were Sens. Bob Coffin and Terry Care, both D-Las Vegas.

A second measure before the committee, which would have cut the tax paid to register a vehicle in half, failed to make it out of the committee. Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, had proposed the cut to the share of the tax going to local governments. The lawmaker said the local governments could afford to give up the revenue.