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Running red in a frozen economy
Sparks and Reno face huge fines for labor law violations / Updated 12-21-2009
Cancerexia: Ralph Lauren boycott widens
Barbwire by Barbano/ Expanded from Daily Sparks Tribune /
12-13-2009

Rory, Rory Hallelujah?
Barbwire by Barbano/ Daily Sparks Tribune / 10-18-2009

More redevelopment
The City of Reno and UNR have a land plan that will kill a park plan. Are the casinos lurking in the background?
Dennis Myers/ Reno News & Review / 10-15-2009

Reno goes Cabellyup again
Money for nothing and the kicks for free
Barbwire / Daily Sparks Tribune / 9-13-2009

Construction workers picket Hyatt Hospitality Suites site at Reno-Tahoe Airport / Hotel will pay no property taxes — EVER / 12-30-2008

Painters Union pickets Scheels store at Sparks Marina Legends development 3-14-2008

Traveling salesman sydrome
3-9
-2008

Pollyanna and Hillary at Sparks City Hall
3-2-2008

Rats, fat cats and Olympic Kool-Aid
2-17-2008

Renown/ Washoe Medical Center: The corporate welfare queen that endangers your life and those of its workers every day

cabellyup.com: Facts about the Cabela's cabal
How to become a corporate welfare queen for fun and profit

BARBWIRE: The price of piece
Hooking business on Sparks Blvd. 6-17-2007

BARBWIRE: Tales of pigs, perversions and pipelines 5-20-2007

BARBWIRE: Let it bleed / Feb. 25, 2007

Green building tax break just another casino/developer subsidy from taxpayers, and a huge one
Revenge for small 2003 gross gambling tax hike

Corporate Welfare 1998-2003

Nevada Casinos Fail to Support Education

 [To  read the entire article, click on the dice.]

State study confirms that gaming does not pay fair share.

Nevada Commission on Economic Development, August 25, 1999
 [To  read the entire article, click on the dice.]

Today's casinos use the DA — not thugs — to collect debt

Las Vegas Review-Journal, September 5, 1999
By John L. Smith
 [To  read the entire article, click on the dice.]

Steve Wynn's art tax loophole will become a budgetary hemorrhage. Senate Bill 521 makes a bad situation worse. The Nevada Tax Commission, following the mandates of the 1997 law and normal rulemaking practices, defined tax exempt art as that which is non-functional. This bill changes all that so that just about anything might qualify as art.
 [To read the entire article, click on the dice.]

Too much ain't enough:  Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority fights to get millions from schools

Las Vegas Sun, April 12, 1999
By Benjamin Grove and Adrienne Packer
 [To  read the entire article, click on the dice.]

The power elite  It's no secret that gaming executives, developers and political consultants wield tremendous clout in Nevada. So what are you gonna do about it?

Las Vegas CityLife, March 25, 1999
By Steve Sebelius
 [To  read the entire article, click on the dice.]

(Editors' Note — This link may not load. CityLife has changed its website configuration. Sorry.)

Barbwire by Barbano (Click on the dice for the multi-year Barbwire Archive)

2003 — More corporate welfare horror stories

NevadaLabor.com White Paper on Nevada's unfair and regressive tax structure
1-20-2003 Web Extra
Gambling industry offers only token taxes and cosmetic participation
1-20-2003 Barbwire Web Extra
Dudley Do-Right, Will Rogers and the Unholy Silence of the Cows
Sparks Tribune 1-19-2003
State of the State: Next to Nothing
Las Vegas CityLife 1-30-2003
Humongous property tax hike glossed over by Gov. Dudley Do-Right
Sparks Tribune 1-26-2003
The need for zero-based taxing
Sparks Tribune 12-13-98
Logrolling, air raids and dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Sparks Tribune 2-2-2003

Legislative Opening Day Web Special
Dudley Do-Right, Joe Neal, living room elephants & chopped liver
2-3-2003 Web Extra
As it appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal vs. the boss of the Nevada Resort Assn.
2-7-2003

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1998-1999
Render Unto Caesar the Things Which Are Salad
Originally published 5-10-98
The Mirror Has Two Faces and All Three Show Cracks
Originally published 6-21-98
Nevada Banana Republic Makes the Poor Pay
Originally published 11-22-98
A Life Sentence Paying Corporate Welfare Taxes
Originally published 11-28-98
Life is Beautiful Despite Darth Vader and Snidely Whiplash
Originally published 1-31-99
Gov. Barbano Vetoes Gov. Guinn's Tax Watchdog Award
Originally published 5-2-99
Fold democracy and let casinos rule by memo
Originally published 6-6-99
Suede shoe psychos & entrepreneurs with lotsa manure
Originally published 8-1-99
Sen. Neal, conservatives & Gov. Dudley Do-Right agree
Originally published 9-19-99
Electric screwdrivers, smoking guns and smokescreens
Originally published 9-26-99

Casino Seeks Tax Break for Art's Sake  It seems that the gamble by the Bellagio's owner, Steven Wynn, is paying off in spades, even though it costs more to enter the two-room gallery than it does just about any major art museum in the country. Still, Wynn is hedging his bets. He is lobbying the Nevada Legislature to pass a bill granting tax exemptions on the collection that would amount to a one-time sales-tax break of $18 million on the purchase of the art and $2.7 million each year in property taxes.

The New York Times, April 12, 1999
By Evelyn Nieves
 [To  read the entire article, click on the dice.]

Clarifying the grease for corporate welfare pickpockets.  Two major pieces of casino corporate welfare legislation have the potential to knock the entire Reno-Sparks legislative delegation out of office next year. Some lawmakers grumble about being coerced to support Senate Bill 255 or see all their bills killed. SB 255 is an attempt to head off a lawsuit now before the Nevada Supreme Court which challenges the legality of tax increases funding the $192 million downtown Reno Union Pacific railroad trench. SB 437 would allow the track project to be designed as it is built, a method which led to 100 percent cost overruns on the Reno National Bowling Stadium.
 [To  read the entire article, click on the dice.]

Subsidizing casinos The convention authority was supposed to bring us more parks, recreation opportunities. Instead, it's just a marketing arm of the gaming industry.

Las Vegas Review-Journal Sunday, April 19, 1998
By Chuck Gardner www.nevadaindex.com/

 [To  read the entire article, click on the dice.]

SEN. JOE NEAL

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