Is Las Vegas Killing the Golden Goose with Taxes and Fees?

Mark Skousen

Is Las Vegas (and Nevada) destroying itself as the entertainment capital of the world and as a tax haven?
It still is income tax-free, but it recently passed a series of massive tax increases (biggest ever in its history) that included a gross receipts tax on business — a tax Nevada-based businesses have to pay even if they lose money. This tax increase was imposed to improve public education. How crazy is that?
And the worst thing is that it was pushed through by Republicans! (There’s an effort to recall Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, but so far nothing has happened.)
Now the Las Vegas hotels are getting into the act by pushing through mandatory increases in their room rates, new “resort fees” and even charging for self-parking.



All of the Las Vegas hotels have conspired together to impose daily “resort fees” (as high as $32 a day!) to force hotel guests to pay for services they may not want or use, such as the Internet in the rooms (when they are out of their rooms most of the day), spa services, etc. We’ve had to encounter this new fee at Planet Hollywood and other conference hotels for FreedomFest, and we have fought hard to keep it from happening, or cut the rate to a low level.
Finally, MGM Resorts have started to impose a fee for self-parking in a city that is famous for free parking. In fact, Las Vegas is the only major city I know of in the country that has no fees for parking. I hope the onerous fees backfire big time, because if tourists allow it to happen, I guarantee all the other hotels will follow suit.
Las Vegas is shooting itself in the proverbial foot — maybe even in the head.
Despite the need to battle back on paying new fees at FreedomFest, the libertarian conference will take place as scheduled this July. In fact, two U.S. senators have been confirmed as speakers.
Sen. Ben Sasse to Join Sen. Rand Paul at FreedomFest
At a Cato Institute event I spoke at on May 13 about the gross output (GO) statistic I have been championing for decades as a measure of economic growth, people were talking about the up-and-coming Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and his anti-Trump stance. He wants to see a third-party candidate emerge. I don’t think it’s going to happen at this late stage. We are happy to announce that Sen. Ben Sasse will be joining us to speak at FreedomFest, along with Sen. Rand Paul (who has endorsed the Republican candidate). The debate will be “YUGE,” as Donald Trump puts it.