By:  Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President

We’ve all heard the rhetorical question about the tree in the forest and if no one heard it fall – did it make a noise?  Can the same apply to the slashing of Nevada budgets?

We know that in 2008 the Nevada Legislature came to Carson City twice to deal with the crisis impacting Nevada’s budgets.  We remember the somber statements and Scarlet O’Hara type “As God as my witness” speeches, indicating that while there were no other choice – for the cuts that were being made – nothing would ever cause that sort of thing to happen again.

Based on the media account numbers, we’re down about $2.3 billion in general fund revenue levels, heading into the budget proposal that Governor Jim Gibbons is expected to present in his January 15th State of The State address.

We’ve heard lots of wailing and moaning coming out of Jim Rogers and the gang who draw pay checks from the state’s Higher Education System – but, we haven’t been seeing or hearing very much from average Nevada citizens. 

We do need to note that when the Board of Regents were going to meet and did meet there were students who were heard from in regard to prospects of class reductions and tuition increases.  Beyond this however…have other Nevada citizens – not connected with Nevada’s Higher Education System had anything to say?

Maybe the hard economic times have these folks consumed with other priorities, but you’d think with the media’s strong desire to promote this dire, end-of-the-world-type condition, we’d be seeing and hearing more in the news about how the state’s budget reductions were having some type of consequences.

Even with the significant reductions in the state government work force, we’ve not been made aware of anyone seeing any impact to those the work force serves. 

Have we just not been paying attention?  Are there accounts, we haven’t been made aware of, regarding Nevada citizens going un-served as the result of the budget reductions?  Are there lines somewhere that are longer – perhaps stuff not being done that is really a ticking time-bomb?

It’s just not rural areas we’re not hearing about – we pour through major urban news accounts on a daily basis…it doesn’t seem to be something that’s being covered.

Perhaps, the average Nevada citizen has very limited interaction with the places in the budget having been reduced.  If that is the case, what does that say about the priority for doing something about changing the situation?

Along with identifying, as we have been stressing, the benefits which come from the dollars spent from Nevada General Fund and other state budgets – let’s also add in some insight into who the constituency requiring the funds might be. 

Perhaps this would assist us if trying to figure out how you can have the degree of reductions that have been so humungous that it can hardly be imagined – yet, only those in the state’s Higher Education community have been doing any complaining.