You Normally Make The Big Changes When You’ve Got No Other Choice
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
Having tried change a couple of times, I can’t say that I’ve ever really liked the time leading up to the decision for change…or the early part of the transition. There have also been instances when even after a long-time of doing whatever differently – I still didn’t like it.
The current economic challenge (for the private sector and for those responsible for the public sector – especially Nevada government) has a lot of folks in a bad mood, rightfully worried about how it’s all going to turn out.
When you read the comments that are shared as feedback for blogs and other thought-pieces you have to work very hard to not get caught up in the “shouting” and “sour exchanges” taking place.
Nevada farmers and ranchers aren’t immune to this serious level of concern. They are seeing slippage in the prices they receive for their production (which also happens in most cases to be the income that takes care of their family).
Empathy is tough to come by for higher taxes to fund increased government spending, regardless of the merits for where the spending is going. In spite of the philosophic contentions that Nevada simply can’t meet the grade of life quality if tax increases aren’t authorized – closing down business operations and throwing the private sector into a tail-spin to boost state spending doesn’t seem justifiable either.
Watching the opening day of budget evaluation (Jan. 22nd) by the Legislative Commission's Budget Subcommittee it’s easy to predict that this isn’t going to be easy or pleasant. Hopefully, choices are going to be really hard (not just political rhetoric about how difficult it was to decide to raise taxes).
Nevada citizens must step forward with conviction to help elected representatives understand what the effects of proposed tax increases will be. Although as Chuck Muth points out, so far the only firm tax increase proposal is the one that Governor Gibbons has put forth in his budget proposal.
Change Doesn’t Have To Mean Bigger Government – Better Would Be Better:
Instead of relying on the comparison game and trying to figure out where Nevada will end up in somebody’s ranking process, if taxes aren’t increased…we need to focus on what it’s going to take to make things better. Amidst the budget battles that will play out, we’re going to be watching and listening closely for somebody to tell us how they think spending more is going to fix all the perceived problems that get all the attention.
If the only consideration is raising taxes to cover spending increases without stressing improvements of deliverables – we will have lost any chance of ever getting better for what we’re spending. The reality is that you get improvement in hard times, when you have no other option than changing.
Looking back over the past several legislative sessions (at least since the 2003 session when lawmakers pushed through the state’s largest tax hike) having a lot of extra money in the state checkbooks didn’t accomplish anything more than financing bigger spending. When that was gone and reductions in the budgeted increases were required – the world (or so it would seem) started teetering on the brink of Armageddon.
If Nevada government and those who are linked to state spending would be required to stay within the current limits of projected income, the challenge of making ends meet would make us all figure out better ways of doing what we probably can’t afford on our current course.
Having tried change a couple of times, I can’t say that I’ve ever really liked the time leading up to the decision for change…or the early part of the transition. There have also been instances when even after a long-time of doing whatever differently – I still didn’t like it.
The current economic challenge (for the private sector and for those responsible for the public sector – especially Nevada government) has a lot of folks in a bad mood, rightfully worried about how it’s all going to turn out.
When you read the comments that are shared as feedback for blogs and other thought-pieces you have to work very hard to not get caught up in the “shouting” and “sour exchanges” taking place.
Nevada farmers and ranchers aren’t immune to this serious level of concern. They are seeing slippage in the prices they receive for their production (which also happens in most cases to be the income that takes care of their family).
Empathy is tough to come by for higher taxes to fund increased government spending, regardless of the merits for where the spending is going. In spite of the philosophic contentions that Nevada simply can’t meet the grade of life quality if tax increases aren’t authorized – closing down business operations and throwing the private sector into a tail-spin to boost state spending doesn’t seem justifiable either.
Watching the opening day of budget evaluation (Jan. 22nd) by the Legislative Commission's Budget Subcommittee it’s easy to predict that this isn’t going to be easy or pleasant. Hopefully, choices are going to be really hard (not just political rhetoric about how difficult it was to decide to raise taxes).
Nevada citizens must step forward with conviction to help elected representatives understand what the effects of proposed tax increases will be. Although as Chuck Muth points out, so far the only firm tax increase proposal is the one that Governor Gibbons has put forth in his budget proposal.
Change Doesn’t Have To Mean Bigger Government – Better Would Be Better:
Instead of relying on the comparison game and trying to figure out where Nevada will end up in somebody’s ranking process, if taxes aren’t increased…we need to focus on what it’s going to take to make things better. Amidst the budget battles that will play out, we’re going to be watching and listening closely for somebody to tell us how they think spending more is going to fix all the perceived problems that get all the attention.
If the only consideration is raising taxes to cover spending increases without stressing improvements of deliverables – we will have lost any chance of ever getting better for what we’re spending. The reality is that you get improvement in hard times, when you have no other option than changing.
Looking back over the past several legislative sessions (at least since the 2003 session when lawmakers pushed through the state’s largest tax hike) having a lot of extra money in the state checkbooks didn’t accomplish anything more than financing bigger spending. When that was gone and reductions in the budgeted increases were required – the world (or so it would seem) started teetering on the brink of Armageddon.
If Nevada government and those who are linked to state spending would be required to stay within the current limits of projected income, the challenge of making ends meet would make us all figure out better ways of doing what we probably can’t afford on our current course.
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