Governor Gibbons was on Nevada Newsmakers today.  At the start of the show, he got a series of questions about the mining tax plan and criticisms from conservatives about his breach of the Tax Pledge.  Gibbons defended the plan, saying it is about increasing revenue by “closing loopholes.”

He did add, “I guess anytime you increase the amount of revenue from taxes, it’s a tax increase” but then went on to say of/about his critics, “I like these guys, they are very smart, very bright and very supportive of me – but we just happen to disagree on terminology here. I am not increasing taxes.”

(sigh)

Re: fee increases in gaming and whether doing that is similar enough in nature to the mining tax increase for Gibbons to support it, he said, “The mining industry says ‘we agree with this’.  I have not talked to the gaming industry about a tax proposal…but I am reluctant to support any fee or tax that isn’t brought in with 100% support of the industry.  It has to have broad support of industry.”

“It needs to be close to unanimous support without a lot of opposition. I’ve said that all along,” Gibbons added.

When asked about criticisms of various of his budget proposals, Gibbons acknowledged them but added, “The Democrats have not come forward with plans.  We have not seen their plan to solve this budget problem.”

When asked about omitting Race to Top and water in the special session, Gibbons echoed what he said this morning on the Nevada News Bureau‘s blogger conference call:  “Both are critical. Both will be in the special session.  We left them off because we felt the call of the special session ought to be first, the budget. We fully intend to amend the call; we can bring that in. That is our plan.”

When asked about the contentious tone of the public dialogue between he and Senator Raggio, Gibbons said, “I am very surprised that Raggio would take that attitude, that tactic at this point.”

When asked about his own counter-attacks on Raggio, Gibbons said, “Well, I’m going to do that, yes, if that is the way he is going to be.”

“During our budget talks, our meetings, we invited Raggio and others,” Gibbons added. We briefed them time and time again; we have listened to their ideas.  But Raggio never showed up most of the time to a lot those meetings.”

At the end of the show, Gibbons told Shad, “I have a brand new veto stamp.”