Saturday, October 17, 2009
To Fee is to Tax?
A very quick note on the new theory on taxation and the Nevada Open Meeting Law (NOML) floated by Senator Patrick Kealy and the Government Operations committee.
The law in itself is not where ASUN should be looking for provisions regarding application of the law, and I think you're getting tripped up over semantics.
Here's my two cents:
One, the NOML is not directly applicable to ASUN. The only provision of the NOML that concerns the implementation of the law as it regards student governments is:
NRS 241.038 Board of Regents to establish requirements for student governments. The Board of Regents of the University of Nevada shall establish for the student governments within the Nevada System of Higher Education requirements equivalent to those of this chapter and shall provide for their enforcement.
So, we go to Regents Policy (Title 4, Chapter 20(B)(3)). Items 2 and 3 are the clauses of interest:
2. "Student government" means each association of students within the Nevada System of Higher Education whose constitution has been approved by the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. (B/R 10/91)
3. The meetings of any multi-member executive or legislative body, committee, subcommittee, commission or subsidiary thereof of a student government shall be held in accordance with the provisions of the Nevada Open Meeting Law, Chapter 241 of the Nevada Revised Statutes, as amended. (B/R 10/91)
Hopefully this is self-explanatory. It is the Regents Policy that is the relevant policy to look at when determining if ASUN is subject to the provisions of the NOML.
Two,
- ASUN is a (student) government.
- Governments can both tax and charge fees for services rendered.
- A tax is levied to support the general operations of the government.
- A fee is charged in regards to a specific function or service (generally not understood to be the general operation of a government.
Therefore, the "fee" is in fact a tax levied on behalf of the student government by the Board of Regents. So, if the line of reasoning was even applicable to the situation ASUN is in, the logic is flawed.
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Calling Kealy a moron would've been a lot easier (and a lot shorter).
ReplyDeleteHaving (almost literally) written the book on the Open Meeting Law (okay, just a thesis), I'd personally like to have Senator Kealy engage this topic here so we can more fully understand his reasoning and if he stands by it. The Sagebrush live blog where this was first reported is sketchy on the details, but it certainly caused an uproar among those following the meeting (link).
ReplyDeleteI'm actually impressed the senators are working hard enough on something to have a deep enough understanding to begin to formulate ideas like this.
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