CONGRESSMAN HECK ATTACKS SANDOVAL COMMERCE TAX

April 22, 2016

Congressman Joe Heck, candidate for US Senate to replace Harry Reid, criticized Governor Sandoval’s Commerce Tax while speaking to a real estate group. Last year Governor Sandoval sparked off a Nevada GOP Civil War by breaking his 2014 election promise not to raise taxes by passing the largest tax hike in Nevada history of $1.3 Billion.

The GOP is already deeply divided as insurgent Conservatives and Libertarian Republicans face off against Governor Sandoval’s Allies in the Nevada State Assembly and State Senate in the upcoming June 14 primary. Congressman Joe Heck attacked the commerce tax for impeding small businesses here in Nevada just as we are recovering from the recession saying “the gross margins or commerce tax…that was passed last time, and what an impact that can have on small businesses and their ability to grow and add to their payroll.”

Congressman Heck’s spokesman went on to say “Dr. Heck talks to small business owners across Nevada about their ability to grow and create jobs. They express concerns about the regulatory burdens of Dodd Frank and the Affordable Care Act, as well as uncertainty about the commerce tax. As a former small business owner, Dr. Heck shares those concerns.”

Sandoval’s spokeswoman, Mari St. Martin, said in response to Heck’s statement “The Governor appreciates Congressman Heck’s concerns about protecting small businesses,” she said via email. “That’s why the Governor went to great effort to make sure the commerce tax would only affect businesses that generate more than $4 million annually in revenue and provided payroll relief to the larger businesses that will be subject to the enhancement. To be clear, more than 95 percent of Nevada’s businesses will not pay the commerce tax. The number of small business employers in Nevada is at its highest level in state history, and at a record high 592,000, the number of small business employees is also at an all-time high, and growing.  This means that small business in Nevada is thriving and has added back the tens of thousands of jobs lost during the recession.”

The new law taxes businesses on the gross revenue it collects each year regardless of profit or loss. The Commerce tax is facing a recall petition which is currently tied up in the Nevada State Supreme Court awaiting approval to move forward.

Assemblyman Brent Jones, whose facing multiple pro tax Sandoval challengers in the June primary and is one of the insurgent leaders whose organized a full scale revolt against the commerce tax, said in response to Congressman Heck’s statement “As a small business owner myself, I am pleased to hear the Congressman gets it. He gets that the Commerce tax is the wrong direction for the Republican Party and more importantly the wrong direction for Nevada.“

Congressman Heck’s Democratic opponent, Catherine Cortez Masto, supports Gov. Sandoval’s Commerce Tax.

Rob Lauer

NEWSMAXTV LAS VEGAS POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR

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