Las Vegas Takes a Tax Hit
13th January, 2009
As many had predicted 2009 is going to be a hard year for most people and it seems Las Vegas tourism is to take another hit along with the credit crisis.
Vehicle taxes and sales taxes seem to be the culprit, however these aren’t to be introduced in Las Vegas, instead they are proposed in the ‘Golden State’ of California.
According to Alan Schlottmann an economics professor from UNLV, the chances of the Las Vegas economy rebounding anytime this year is not optimistic. Stating “we hope we are wrong, but we feel Southern Nevada will poke along until 2010.”
Schlottmann and colleagues calculated that around one in four of Las Vegas visitors drive from Southern California. And that is is this along with fiscal changes that will reduce demand for hospitality services in Las Vegas by an estimated 5 %.
“Unfortunately, in the view of California –based Theodore Roosevelt Institute (TRI), recessions that started with a financial crisis similar to our current condition are long and deep rather than short and quick,” said Schlottmann, where he is executive director, he continued by saying, “In our view, Nevada gaming is going to be a bit of a tussle not through 2009 but though 2010 as well. If we are correct, this is an ‘eight quarter to ten quarter’ problem before recovery, not a ‘wait until next year’ problem.”
However these bleak views for Nevada were refuted by Jeremy Aquero, principal of Applied Analysis research firm in Las Vegas, who put forward the fact that a lot of states across America including California had raised their taxes over the past 20 years and tourism continued to grow, and that even with a recession conditions were momentary and not long term, “Economies are more complex than simply the tax structures.”
By Rommon
