Nevada lawmakers' revenue model.

There's one industry that does far and away more than any other to pay the bar tab for the State of Nevada and it's probably about to be mandated to pay even more. That's because even though we're suffering through, proportionally speaking, the worst budget deficit in the U.S. and the methodology underlying Nevada's general fund is incredibly flawed, other industries will be allowed to continue shirk their share of the load.

How do we know this? Because invertebrate gubernatorial wannabe Barbara Buckley (D-[Your logo here]) flat-out won't support a corporate income tax. Which might be all right if she had a viable alternative, other than a pie-in-the-sky suggestion that Nevada diversify its economy.

Heck, people more serious than Buckley have been calling for such diversification for years and it still hasn't happened (in part because the wretched state of Nevada education -- about to get worse -- scares companies away). And it's sure as shooting not going to magically happen in the scant few weeks the Lege has to cobble together something resembling a budget.

Sales taxes and gaming taxes each represent roughly a third of the state's revenue base. The former is regressive both by definition and in practice, while the latter discriminates heavily against one industry, while letting all others pretty much off the hook. For instance, the state's two most lucrative mines paid $13.3 million in taxes to Nevada in all of 2007 -- on $436 million in taxable revenues. Casinos, however, paid $65 million in taxes on $840 million in revenue last February alone.

Were Nevada's gaming industry not in freefall, that disparity would be more glaring still. But Silver State solons would rather jam hot needles into their eyes than ask the sacrosanct extractive industries for one thin dime more. (Boy, they'll be sorry when those mines are tapped out.)

Heck, our legal brothels have actually offered to be taxed but our maidenly lawmakers demurely proclaimed, "No, no, a thousand times, no! You cannot buy my caress." How come? It would create -- get this -- image problems for a state that got on the map as the divorce capitol of America. Prostitutes are showing themselves more civic-minded that our ostensible "leadership" ... but the profession known as prostitution has always been considerably more honest than the prostitution known as politics.

Given the ramshackle history of Nevada's tax structure and some hints dropped by Buckley and crony Morse "Moose" Arberry, we've got a pretty good idea of what to expect from their Secret Budget Plan (under wraps until next month): More of the same. As in higher sales taxes, state fees ... and, yes, gaming taxes. Steve Wynn's warning about the catastrophic effect of the latter is apparently going to fall upon deaf legislative ears. Wynn's said he's "the most powerful man in Nevada." Now would be a good time to prove it.

On another note ...

God forbid, you need to answer the call of nature during the playing of a mediocre Irving Berlin song, at least when you're at Yankee Stadium. Support freedom -- or else! That good old George Steinbrenner spirit remains alive and well, I see.