March 21, 2011

The mining industry is highly protected by many in Nevada, starting with Brian Sandoval. According to LVGleaner, this is the way I see it:

Sandoval, after quitting a federal  judgeship to run for governor was employed by Jones Vargas to do lawyer stuff, none of which has been publicly documented.

Jones Vargas paid Sandoval until he was sworn in as governor or close to that fateful time in our history. This means he was an employee of Jones Vargas as governor-elect during which time he was deciding who would work for him and how to balance the state's budget without taxes by protecting mining. Most certainly that's when Sandoval refined his "State Employee Tax" scheme, undoubtedly with the help of his employer Jones Vargas.

Jones Vargas is a law firm out of Las Vegas and provides a lobbyist for, you guessed it... mining.

James Wadams, an attorney and mining lobbyist testified at a committee hearing yesterday about mining's tax deductions since he is an expert in this area. He represents Newmont Mining and he is also employed by Jones Vargas the same company that until recently employed our dear leader in Carson City.

Here is a link to the Jones Vargas wepage about James Wadams.      Here is a link to Wadams' LCB lobbyist information.

All this clearly defines a mining protection racket of epic proportions that will mean less money for Nevada. It will also mean state employees will have a permanent "State Employee Tax" to make them pay for things everyone else (mining) wants but doesn't want to pay for.

Here are some more annoyances:

For Sandoval-Jones Vargas it wouldn't be right to have mining pay more than the measly amount they currently pay. And if they want to pay even less, then that's okay too because there are no state audits of them anyway. This means there is no proof they are not paying accurately so in attorney language, "It's all good"!

Undoubtedly Sandoval-Jones Vargas will not publicly discuss the discrepancy between earning reports mining give to investors and what they report as "earnings" to the state for tax purposes. Again, "It's all good"!

This means... "The fix is in".... you know it is.

With a governor bought and paid for by casinos and mining it is most likely they will escape much scrutiny this year. Even if they do have to answer a couple of softball questions, it will be much less scrutiny the legislature will give regarding how much a state contractor makes or how much a secretary earns at NDOT ... all of which will surely be discussed in detail at budget hearings this session.

Like the casinos, mining is strangling Nevada. Pitiful... isn't it?  Why do we allow this abuse to continue? No, seriously... Why?

Let's gut NRS 362.120, "Computation of gross yield and net proceeds" and start to end this abuse. Then, how about a legislative joint resolution to remove mining protections from the state constitution and put it to a vote of the people. Now that would be democracy!

But then, we thought democracy was in action when Sandoval was elected. Never mind the piles of cash in the campaign corner and the quid pro quo later.