FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 31, 2021
New Tax on Mines Passes Nevada Legislature
Carson City, NV–– On May 29th, three days before the end of the 81st Legislative Session, the Nevada Assembly introduced Assembly Bill 495, a compromise that would raise revenue from gold and silver mines in Nevada. Today, the Nevada Assembly and Senate voted to pass AB495, with the constitutionally required ⅔ vote. AB495 taxes the industry’s gross revenue. In addition, it redirects the Net Proceeds on Minerals(NPOM) from the general fund to education. NPOM, coupled with the new gross revenue tax, will bring more than $300 million in new revenue to public education. We look forward to Governor Sisolak taking swift action and signing AB495 to secure funding for the future of Nevada’s students.
Laura Martin, Executive Director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada(PLAN) released the following statement:
“The mining industry has taken billions of dollars in tax deductions–at the expense of chronically underfunded public schools, health care, and other essential services–thanks to a constitutional mining tax protection they wrote for themselves in 1864. AB495 will help address some of Nevada’s revenue shortfalls by taxing their gross revenue. But, we stand by what we’ve said since last summer: Assembly Joint Resolution 1** was the best way to capture new revenue for not only education, but health care, and other essential services. We are completely opposed to public money used to fund vouchers or unaccountable charter schools. We look forward to working with public education partners to address this in the future.
“We’re glad that the advocacy PLAN has led since the late 90s to educate Nevadans about our unfair tax structure has got us to this moment. It was the very real prospect of AJR1** headed to the ballot behind the organizing of the Dig Deep Coalition that put the mining industry in a position that they told us several times was not possible. It’s time for the mining industry to pay what it owes. This conversation is not over.”
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