The teachers union vs. the gamers

The Nevada gaming industry once again finds a bull's-eye stamped on its back. Can it successfully dodge the attacks?

Late last month, a group announced plans to target the casino industry through a populist ballot initiative that would more than double the state gaming tax in return for eliminating the property tax on individual residences.

And now the powerful teachers union has set its sights on the gamers. The Nevada State Education Association this week said it will soon start to collect signatures for a ballot question that would raise the gaming tax on Nevada's largest casinos by 45 percent -- from 6.75 percent to 9.75 percent -- in order to pad school budgets.

Whether either tax proposal actually makes the ballot remains to be seen. But there's no question the state education association has the organization and money to pull it off. And that would set up an interesting showdown between two of the state's most powerful special-interest groups.

It's a showdown that the gamers and the teachers union have long tried to avoid.

Seven years ago, union officials pushed a ballot measure imposing tax increases to fund education, but decided against singling out the gaming industry in hopes of avoiding a formidable opponent's wrath. Instead, they sought a more general, 4 percent tax on business profits -- but eventually agreed to back off and let lawmakers address the issue, setting the stage for the 2003 tax battle in Carson City.

Perhaps this is a similar stalking horse, although union officials say this time they had no choice.

"There is nothing more important than increasing educators' salaries, benefits and improving their working conditions as well as the learning conditions of students," said Lynn Warne, the association's president. "We have chosen to stand to make a difference, and we will not quietly submit to the idea that there is nothing we can do."

The gamers' response was, as usual, disappointing. Rather than take a principled stand that Nevada doesn't need higher taxes -- that the state's tax structure has consistently generated new revenues at a pace that outstrips population growth and inflation combined -- industry spokesmen repeated the mantra that they already pay enough, so the union should go after other interests.

"Other businesses and industries that benefit from our vibrant economy need to have a responsibility to be part of the solution," said Rob Stillwell, a spokesman for Boyd Gaming. "We just happen to be the most visible."

Added Bill Bible, president of the Nevada Resort Association: "We do share the same concerns that the teachers are expressing. ... The problem is, you're placing the burden on one industry."

In other words, higher taxes are fine as long as somebody else pays them.

The union ballot question will no doubt have initial widespread appeal. It's one of the miracles of recent Nevada history -- and a testimony to the power the state casino interests wield -- that the gamers have for almost two decades successfully staved off virtually every effort to increase the gross gaming tax despite polls showing a significant majority of voters would embrace just that.

But if the union hopes to win the battle, it had better be prepared to explain to taxpayers -- remember, an increase in the gaming tax will affect the hundreds of thousands of Nevadans who enjoy games of chance or who are employed by the casinos -- just what they'll get in return.

Ms. Warne made it clear the union seeks to put the $250 million it claims the tax hike would generate each year toward better salaries, benefits and working conditions for teachers. There was no mention of ensuring that students can read and execute basic computations; of lifting Nevada kids from the bottom of national test rankings; of reducing the number of state high school graduates who are unable to do basic college-level work.

In other words, no mention of the word "accountability."

And if Ms. Warne and other union officials believe that Nevada taxpayers will be eager to toss millions of additional dollars each year into the public schools absent any promises of reform or improved student achievement, our guess is they might be in for a rude awakening.