Democrat ex-Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie recently delivered what was billed as a Progressive (meaning Liberal) State of the State speech in advance of moderate Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval’s “All’s Well” State of the State speech.  Allow me to summarize the uber-liberal’s all-too-predictable “Tax the Rich, Feed the Poor” speech:

Raise taxes on Nevada’s biggest job providers and mining.  Hire more government employees.  More welfare. More Medicaid.  More spending on…everything.  Oh, and don’t mess with government-run education no matter how bad the public schools are.  Just give ‘em mo’ money, honey!

In other words, it’s the same warmed-over tax-and-spend liberalism - which Democrats such as Ms. Leslie have been regurgitating since FDR’s Raw Deal - that has so weakened our nation, whittled away at our liberties and put us on a downhill economic pathway to…Greece!

But don’t get the idea that Ms. Leslie is the only hyper-active tax-hiker in Nevada.  Indeed, here’s a list of three recent tax hikes that appeared on the ballot just this past November, as well as a bevy of new ones being mulled for 2013:

• Henderson Library District sought a property tax increase (voters rejected overwhelmingly)
• Clark County School District sought a property tax increase (voters rejected overwhelmingly)
• Carson City Library District sought a sales tax increase (voters rejected overwhelmingly)
• Elko is raising its gasoline tax
• Nevada is raising its unemployment tax on employers
• Gov. Sandoval is seeking a sales tax increase
• Gov. Sandoval is seeking a business license fee/tax increase
• Gov. Sandoval is seeking an increase in the “employee head” tax
• Gov. Sandoval is seeking an increase in vehicle registration fees
• The teachers and other unions are seeking a new income tax on businesses
• Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins wants to “raise the damn property tax”
• Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani wants a property tax hike for more funding for UMC
• Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross has suggested a new tax on services
• Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman has proposed a new $5-per-person annual “recovery” tax
• Mineral County Commissioner Cliff Cichowlaz has called for a state income tax…and a tattoo tax!
• Las Vegas’ Metropolitan Police Department is seeking a sales tax increase
• A Clark County Health District lawsuit could force a property tax increase
• Washoe County wants a rental car tax increase for its baseball stadium
• UNLV may seek a room tax increase to build a new mega-events center

It’s Taxapalooza time!!  A quarter-cent here, a quarter-cent there, and pretty soon you’re talking…California!

These people just don’t get it.  It’s not so much the tax hikes they’re proposing that’s the big problem.  It’s the bigger government those “little” tax hikes will buy.  Sorry, no sale!