"Nothing booms quite like Nevada"
With over a million new jobs, expansion of the gross state product over seven
times, low unemployment, and a "business friendly, low tax" environment,
Nevada would appear to be a veritable economic nirvana. However, these rosy
attributes turn to platitudes when the much uglier underbelly of Nevada’s economic picture is revealed.
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- Despite the addition of over a million jobs over the last three decades, more than 57% pay less than a living wage and that nearly 87% pay less than a living wage for a three-person family and many low-wage workers often hold two full-time jobs just to pay basic bills.
- Almost 19% of Nevada's children live below the poverty level
- Nevada has the second highest percentage of mortgage owners paying more than 30% of the household income on housing
- Nevada ranks 50th in expenditures for public elementary and secondary education and ranks 47th in the percentage of students able to read above a basic 4th grade reading level
- Nevada ranks 51st in state Medicaid spending and 49th in both total state health care expenditures and in overall children's health.
And yet...
- The top 1% of Nevada's population pays only 1.8% of their income in taxes compared to almost 9% for the bottom 20% of Nevada's wage earners
- Nevada's tax structure is the most regressive in the nation ranking 51st compared to 49 states and the District of Columbia
- Nevada is one of only four states without any type of corporate income tax
- Not surprisingly...
Nevada ranks 4th in suicides and 5th in alcohol consumption per capita.
PLAN's Economic and Tax Justice Committee is a committed and active group
of board and community members who share PLAN's commitment to Economic
Justice. As such, the committee acts under the following Guiding Principles:
Women, people of color, immigrants, LGBT people, people with disabilities, and
others often denied the respect and opportunity they deserve in a democratic
society, have an inalienable right to dignity and freedom from discrimination.
This committee exists to strive for economic justice within a social justice framework by setting the following goals and objectives. |
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The Committee has stated the following primary goals in PLAN’s strategic plan:
- First: Achieve an equitable, stable and progressive tax structure by protecting
the gains we’ve already made in tax fairness and by fighting tax and government spending restriction gimmicks such as the Taxpayers Bill Of Rights (TABOR)
ballot initiative and Proposition 13-style Property Tax Cap ballot initiatives. Ultimately we would like to implement alternative progressive tax legislation and
constitutional amendments.
- Second: Achieve economic justice for more Nevadans including livable wage
jobs, and safe, clean and non-discriminatory work places, thereby improving the
standards of all Nevadans by building on the successes of our 2001 Employment
Non-Discrimination Act adding sexual orientation to protected categories in
employment, and the 2006 passage of the minimum wage initiative raising the
state minimum wage $1.00 above the federal minimum wage.
- Third: Work to move people out of poverty by adopting specific initiatives
to strengthen income support systems and to improve availability and access to
services, including greater access to health care coverage, job training and education, affordable housing, child care, transportation assistance and protecting a
woman’s right to reproductive choice.
- Finally: Train social service providers and community leaders in tax and budgetary policy to build a well-informed and actively engaged constituency to promote these progressive economic goals.
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Join PLAN’s Action Alert e-mail advocacy list to be on the front lines of our community organizing around living wages, tax fairness, and other economic justice issues.
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