LAS VEGAS — Both Democratic senators from Nevada have signed on to a GOP-led bill to implement a “no taxes on tips” policy — after Donald Trump promised to push the plan at a rally in the swing state about a month ago.
Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen are backing the “No Tax on Tips Act” introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to create a deduction “equal to the cash tips received” by workers during a tax year.
Rosen, who moved to Las Vegas after graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1979, worked as a waitress at Caesars Palace during summers in the 1980s and was a member of Culinary Workers Union Local 226.
The first-term senator is locked in a re-election contest with Republican Sam Brown, with Real Clear Pollingsaying she has a 4.7-point lead.
Cruz’s bill was sent to the Senate Finance Committee, with no hearings yet scheduled, according to Congress.gov.
As of Saturday, the Silver State senators are the sole Democrats to back the measure.
“Nevada has the highest percentage of tipped workers, and they’re working harder than ever while being squeezed by rising costs,” Rosen said in a social-media post on X. “Getting rid of the federal income tax on tips would deliver immediate financial relief for them.”
In a subsequent message, Rosen said she was “joining bipartisan legislation to exempt tips” — without noting that her and Cortez Masto’s cosponsorship made the bill bipartisan.
Cortez Masto said in a statement, “This legislation is just one part of comprehensive efforts I support to cut taxes for tipped workers and for all hardworking middle-class Nevadans.”
Trump first floated the tax-free-tips idea June 9 at a massive rally in the city’s Sunset Park, declaring, “When I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips, on people making tips.”
The crowd of thousands roared its approval.
When the bill was launched, Cruz was joined by fellow GOPers, such as Sens. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Steve Daines of Montana and Florida’s Rick Scott. Sen. Pete Ricketts, a Nebraska Republican, and GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi also signed on to the measure July 11, the same day Nevada’s senators did.
The Culinary Workers local, which previously slammed Trump’s proposal as “wild campaign promises from a convicted felon,” lauded the Democrat sign-on to the Cruz measure without mentioning the bill’s Texas author.
“Nevada has the highest concentration of tipped workers in the nation, and all cash and non-cash tips are currently subject to federal taxes,” union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said in a statement.
“This bipartisan legislation will allow hospitality workers to keep their tips without paying federal income tax on them.”
But a tipped worker said that while the proposed legislation is laudable, it does not completely solve the problems she and others face.
“I would rather see legislation that actually protects tip earners more so from having their tips forcibly split with their employers,” licensed sex worker Alice Little, 34, told The Post.
“I mean, it would be far more useful for those senators to step up and introduce any sort of legislation that would protect the legal sex workers of Nevada and our rights.”
She said brothel workers are “already required to split [tips] with our location anyway, so we already get 50%” of gratuities.”