Nevada ads 'un-Bear-able' to lawmakers
A campaign to lure businesses across the state line annoys officials on both sides of the tax-hike issue.
SACRAMENTO — As California business leaders bristle at vows by lawmakers to close the budget gap with new corporate taxes, the good people of Nevada see a Golden State opportunity.
In a series of advertisements in newspapers and business journals that portray California in cartoons, the Nevada Development Authority is trying to lure California enterprises across the state line.
"Doing your part to carry the un-Bear-able load?" asks one ad, which features a cartoon of a businessman lugging the bear from California's state flag on his back. The bear has a fistful of cash in its mouth and, just to be clear, the words "California Taxes" on its left hind leg.
"We can see what is going on in California as far as businesses are concerned," Somer Hollingsworth, president of the authority, which is seeking to attract companies to the Las Vegas area, said in an interview. "They've got workers' comp issues, a $16.5-billion deficit, employee retirement funds that are out of whack."
Now many in Sacramento "want to raise billions of dollars in taxes," Hollingsworth said, "and the only people left to pay them are businesses."
The ads crow that Nevada, long a haven for businesses seeking refuge from taxes, has no corporate income tax, no personal income tax and no inventory tax -- plus, it has lower workers' compensation rates and a pro-business attitude.
Hollingsworth says he wants to "let businesses know there is an alternative" to California. "We want to pull some companies out of there."
The move by Nevada officials, who say they will spend about $1.5 million placing the ads in publications and on billboards, has been met with some annoyance among California lawmakers.
"Businesses are here because they appreciate the powers of this economy," said state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles), who is among the Democrats arguing for a tax hike. "I suspect Nevada wishes it could be ranked as among one of the top economies in the world."
Ridley-Thomas said the Nevadans would be "naive" to think they would benefit from California's budget problems. What they really ought to be doing, he declared, is rooting for a recovery in California, because growth here tends to spill over the state line.
Meanwhile, the anti-tax crowd in Sacramento has seized on the Nevada campaign as one more reason not to increase taxes. Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster) waved a copy of one of the ads at a recent hearing of the Revenue and Taxation Committee to emphasize his point that state taxes are already too high.
