News

Water film showing set

Last Call At the Oasis, a documentary by the Oscar winning Participant Media (Waiting for “Superman,”Charlie Wilson’s War) will be shown in Reno on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Century Riverside theater.

The movie is a look at water policies in an era when corporations like Goldman Sachs are trying to make water a privately owned commodity.

The Washington Post described Oasisas a movie that “represents nonfiction filmmaking at its most urgent, timely and stylistically smooth. ... Beginning in Nevada (now the go-to geographic metaphor for American profligacy and greed), Last Call at the Oasisdelivers the alarming news that if [Las Vegas] continues to irrigate its dancing fountains and casino tourists at current rates, the nearby Lake Mead will be depleted, rendering the Hoover Dam unable to generate electricity in four years.”

Additional information and advance tickets can be obtained at http://tinyurl.com/8zx2syw

Romney’s complaint

Nevadans fall smack in the middle of the ranking of people who pay no income tax, the people who so vex Mitt Romney, who complained about them at a private fundraiser. A video of his remarks was leaked to Mother Jones magazine.

According to the Tax Foundation, 35 percent of Nevadans make too little money to pay income tax. That’s 25th among the 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Some of Romney’s comments:“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it—that that’s an entitlement. ...These are people who pay no income tax.”

The income tax system was designed to be progressive and exempt those without much money. It’s the reason many grass roots groups demanded an income tax during the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1913, the year the tax took effect, everyone with an income of less than $4,000 ($87,108.76 in 2010 dollars) was exempt.

By the way, all the states with high numbers of people who pay no income tax usually vote Republican in presidential races—the South and Idaho.

Nevada still underbanked

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reports that about a quarter of Nevada households are not fully engaged in the banking system, with 27.6 percent either “unbanked” (66,000 households) or “underbanked” (208,000 households). That represents a slight gain from the last such survey in 2009, when Nevada was at 27.3 percent (“Nevadans ‘underbanked,’ ” RN&R, Dec. 10, 2009).

Unbanked households are defined as lacking a checking or savings account. Underbanked households are those that have bank accounts but still rely on alternatives like money orders, check cashing shops, payday loans, rent-to-own agreements, pawn shops remittances, and other forms. These are called alternative financial services, or AFS.

Full figures for some communities were released, but only limited information was provided in the cases of Reno and Las Vegas. Those in Reno who are underbanked or entirely unbanked come to 35.8 percent of households, more than 10 percent above the state figures. Figures for the number of Reno households that use AFS were not provided.

Conventional wisdom

A drive to register poor Nevadans spawns theories

On the day before Nevada’s primary election this year, Project Vote, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Underby Dennis Myers Law, the NAACP, and the law firm of Dechert LLP, sued Nevada to get a remedy to what the civil rights groups called the state’s “ongoing disregard” for the voting rights of low-income residents. The suit argued that the state was not in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Best known for imposing “motor voter”—a requirement for voter registration at state motor vehicle licensing offices—the Act did not stop there.

“Party loyalty has never been lower.”

Fred Lokken Political analyst

The lawsuit filing argued, “Section 7 of the [Act] requires that all public assistance offices … distribute a voter registration application with each application for public assistance, and each recertification, renewal, or change of address relating to an individual’s receipt of public assistance. Section 7 of the [Act] reflects Congress’ objective to ensure that registration is accessible for the poor and persons with disabilities who do not have driver’s licenses.”

At one time, the state was very active in providing voter registration in public assistance offices. Tens of thousands of registrations were taken there. But in recent years those numbers have fallen into four digits.

In response to the lawsuit, voter registration efforts have become much more aggressive in various offices that serve low-income Nevadans.

In addition, online voter registration has become available this month.

However, the notion that ease of registration increases voter turnout is not a proposition that has panned out in the past.

Party gain?

Some commentaries have suggested that the push in the state for more low-income participation in voting is likely to be an advantage for the Democratic Party, but that is far from certain. Low-income whites, in particular, are a big question mark.

“This is a nation of aspirations, and many people vote their aspirations,” said political scientist Fred Lokken. “Voters often want to identify with the party that speaks to affluence.”

He said party is only one of many factors that drive votes by the poor, and there has never been a worse time to bet on party loyalty.

“It can be driven by religious affiliation, family history, the critical issues of the day or the state of the economy,” Lokken said.

The kinds of likely behavior the party system once counted on are no longer givens.

“One of the realities the two parties have had to face is that their guaranteed locked-in support has kind of disappeared,” Lokken said. “Party loyalty has never been lower.”

The economy is a very powerful driver of voter preference in hard times, he said.

“They’re going to take into account how well they’ve done.”

Even if people are registered, nothing assures that they will vote. In the state’s primary election in June, turnout was in the teens—and that was as a percent of registered voters. As a percent of eligible voters, it was even lower.

In part, the low turnout was likely attributable to the early date—June 12. But even taking that into account, a 14.5 percent turnout is pretty dismal.

Overall turnout generally is of less importance, certainly in the presidential race, than who turns out.

In Nevada, Mitt Romney leads among white voters, men, voters over 45, and those who describe themselves as independents. In addition, the number of Nevadans who view him negatively has declined, giving him about the same favorability rankings as Barack Obama— though Romney may be on a trend line, which means his favorability could continue improving.

Obama leads among minorities, women, and voters under 45.

Obama’s Nevada lead fell to three points in a Public Policy Polling survey taken the weekend before the Republican National Convention, the most recent independent survey available. That margin is so close that Republican tactics like suing to remove Nevada’s “none of these candidates” ballot option could have a determinative impact if that margin holds.

At the downtown Reno municipal bus terminal, voter registrars have been signing up voters.

Latinos resist

Perhaps surprisingly, PPPfound that Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson polled in other states better than in Nevada, where he receives just 2 percent of the vote. However, it is difficult to assess who Johnson takes votes from, because his issue stands tend to cut across liberal/conservative lines. He opposes the war on drugs, supports abortion rights, opposes the kind of military interventions the U.S. has launched in recent decades, opposes