Senator Hansen has made a great effort to improve the deal with Prosser and his companies. Unfortunately, it is not better.
Once again we have the Government giving away our tax base so that the only taxes collected will be from the people. Big businesses, such as the phone company, the cable company, the cellular phone companies, and the newspapers will operate without paying any taxes. It was bad enough that we let Hess get away with it, we should not make the same mistake with Prosser.
But this time Prosser gets more for less. Under this bill, if Prosser gives 1000 acres of land and $4.5 million dollars, without the drag strip, etc, he and all his companies and the shareholders of his companies pay no taxes, income or gross, no licensing fees, no excise fees for TWENTY YEARS. So, for some $14 million dollars of
investment, he gets some $400 million dollars in tax breaks.
IF Prosser decides to build the drag strip, library, baseball field, etc., then he gets an additional TEN years of no taxes. If he does not, he still gets the TWENTY years of no taxes.
Now, is there a hotel in the Bill? NOT REALLY. Under the Bill, it says that a 300-room hotel would be built sometime in the next FIVE years.
While the press release says a five-star hotel, that is not stated in the Bill. Further, the tax benefits are given to Prosser whether or not he builds the hotel and the bill provides that there is no breach (or tax penalty) for not building the hotel.
The Prosser agreement is that once the bill is passed there will be 1,000 acres of land to be taxed and taxes on building supplies and construction worker's pay. First of all, there is no agreement that the construction will ever occur. Second of all, we were taxing 2,800 acres and under the
bill we can tax 1,000 acres. And finally, what this agreement really is, is to see how much more tax money we can get from the people ‘dem so that Prosser's corporations don't have to pay taxes.
In reality, every dollar of taxes Prosser does not have to pay we, the people, have to pay. If we can't afford to pay Prosser's taxes, then we will pay in not having a working hospital, adequate schools, having roadswithout potholes and we will have multiple pay less paydays.
Finally, if we pass this illegal special legislation for Prosser, then legally all the other similar businesses, i.e. banks, AT&T, cellular phone companies, and hotels are entitled to demand the same tax breaks.
Before passing such a disastrous bill, with only 24 hour's notice, we should urge our Senators to hire an economist to tell us how much we are giving away and what economic destruction we are causing.
