I previously wrote about Las Vegas’ attempt to draw more businesses from California. A few days ago I saw one of the ads: A giant peanut crushed a Californian, akin to California’s huge tax burden crushing a business. One Los Angeles television station, KABC, has refused to run the ads, citing an anti-California theme and offensiveness.
KABC is correct. The ads are anti-California, but they’re hardly offensive. Accurate is a better statement, especially when you compare the extremely offensive (high) tax burden in California to the non-offensive (low) tax burden in Nevada.
I haven’t seen another ad that the Nevada Development Authority has run. It features a poker game between California business and Las Vegas business. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Las Vegas business gets three aces and a “No state personal income/corporate tax card” while California gets an anti-business card. Las Vegas moves all-in while California folds.
The Nevada Development Authority has $5.5 million in marketing dollars to spend. But their most important bit of marketing is out of their hands—the results in the California June primary on Proposition 82, which would increase California’s already offensive tax burden.