Nevadans win big

Nevadans came away from the 250th birthday of the United States with quite the present: No taxes on tips. 

President Donald Trump signed the “Big Beautiful Bill” on July 4. Republicans cheered; Democrats jeered. But no matter your political affiliation, Nevadans, perhaps more than any other state, made out like a favorite child. 

Why? Because Nevada has so many workers who rely on tips to make ends meet. 

Tip earners, beginning today, pay no — zero, zip nada — taxes on the first $150,000 they earn. For anyone on the lower end of the pay scale, this is a game-changer. 

Mr. Trump came up with the idea one night as he sat down for dinner in Las Vegas. He asked the waitress how she was doing, and she said, “Not too good, sir.” He asked why, and she said, “The government is killing me on tips.” 

“There should be no taxes on tips,” she told Trump. 

The former president adopted that as a plank in his election campaign. At the time, loyal readers will remember, I wrote that this would be an absolute game changer in the Nevada presidential election. 

The Culinary Union pooh-poohed the idea. Said it wouldn’t pass. Nevada’s two Democratic senators opposed it right off the bat, then reversed themselves when the polls started to show how popular the idea was in the Silver State. Kamala Harris even reversed herself to jump on the bandwagon. 

But voters knew who to thank, and Trump went on to win Nevada convincingly. 

Don’t let status quo Democrats and their puppetmaster, the Culinary Union, fool you. They didn’t make the “No Taxes on Tips” phenomenon happen. It was that waitress and Donald Trump. 

Nevadans who need it most will now have more money in their pockets this year to buy food, pay the rent, etc. 

And that, my friends, is a big deal. (Sherman Frederick is a longtime Nevada journalist. You can read more of his writing at shermanfrederick.substack.com.)