In the Review Journal MGM Mirage Chairman and CEO Terry Lanni used the Nevada Development Authority's annual luncheon Thursday to say the free meal is over.

Lanni said Nevada's economy is in disarray because the tax structure, which relies heavily on gaming and sales taxes, is broken.

Lanni used his speech to reject a proposal by the state's teachers union that would increase Nevada's gaming tax by 45 percent. MGM Mirage, which operates 10 Strip resorts and is building the $7.8 billion CityCenter development, would be heavily affected by the increase.

Development authority President and CEO Summer Hollingsworth said after the speech the organization welcomed being part of the discussion. While he did not come out and support a broad-based business tax, Hollingsworth said that option might be one of several proposed solutions to solve the state's budgetary problems.

Lanni supports a one industry state where all other businesses service the casino industry and now wants them to carry the tax load. He points out that Nevada could become another Illinois, a tax heavy state, but fails to mention that for Nevadans, their tax free day comes after Illinois. What he meant to say is that Illinois taxes gaming at a 90 percent rate, yet surprisingly, the gaming industry stays there. I guess he feels that teachers are guilty of piling on the gaming industry by wanting to raise the Nevada tax to about a 9 percent rate. If I didn't know better, I would think that Lanni is afraid of the teachers, but since Nevada legislators and judges are "owned" by, I mean friendly toward, casino interests, the ballot issue is already dead. If so, I hope that Nevadans get angry enough to start throwing out all incumbent politicians in the state who have allowed casinos to gorge on the buffet while education, roads, wages and more have suffered.