Hang On To Your Wallets – Nevada Budget Solution Is On It’s Way
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
On Friday, May 1st the Economic Forum will be held and when they are finished looking into their economic crystal balls, having evaluated the trends, the anticipated outcome will be a declaration that Nevada’s expected General Fund revenue will be significantly lower than expected when Governor Jim Gibbons brought his budget proposal to the legislative body so they could declare how out of touch he was with the way things ought to be. This update follows a steady stream of similar dispatches that have constantly reported on the steady drip of leaking tax revenue coming from all tax revenue sources.
Expectations for projections coming from the Economic Forum aren’t exactly positive. Which brings us to the question of how legislators plan to pay for the “add-backs” that have been made somewhat official, given we’ve learned of the rough amount following the closed door meeting with some legislators and a handful of business leaders who supposedly are on the same page with the idea of raising taxes to pay for the spending increases.
There hasn’t been any detail of what we are going to be getting for the $62-plus million that the “leadership” of Nevada’s Legislature has deemed to be necessary for putting into the budget for the coming two years. There also hasn’t been any detail of the “substantial” cuts that have been calculated. Evidently when we were told about the “transparency” we were going to be getting from the majority party in charge of the 2009 Legislature, they were actually talking about presenting information, in a public way, to help us as taxpayers understand what was involved in “governing” our way through this process.
We did get to hear a lot of public bashing for how the Governor’s proposal was horrifically out-of-touch with the needs of those who get paid from the state’s general fund. Now it seems like the Governor’s budget plan is going to be a reach to fund requiring a tax increase just to get to that unacceptable level of not spending enough.
Up until now, we haven’t been told by legislators of specific proposals for increasing taxes. The hearings for public input have been on proposals which haven’t advanced. Can we anticipate that the opportunity for input will come after the people in charge of the legislative outcome have locked down the final results for what will be decided – and then hold “committee of the whole” hearings to “discuss” and “decide”.
It’s been observed that those inside the Nevada Legislative Building might gain some insight from those outside the building on a reality of the real world. There might not be an opportunity for such a message to be delivered until November of 2010.
On Friday, May 1st the Economic Forum will be held and when they are finished looking into their economic crystal balls, having evaluated the trends, the anticipated outcome will be a declaration that Nevada’s expected General Fund revenue will be significantly lower than expected when Governor Jim Gibbons brought his budget proposal to the legislative body so they could declare how out of touch he was with the way things ought to be. This update follows a steady stream of similar dispatches that have constantly reported on the steady drip of leaking tax revenue coming from all tax revenue sources.
Expectations for projections coming from the Economic Forum aren’t exactly positive. Which brings us to the question of how legislators plan to pay for the “add-backs” that have been made somewhat official, given we’ve learned of the rough amount following the closed door meeting with some legislators and a handful of business leaders who supposedly are on the same page with the idea of raising taxes to pay for the spending increases.
There hasn’t been any detail of what we are going to be getting for the $62-plus million that the “leadership” of Nevada’s Legislature has deemed to be necessary for putting into the budget for the coming two years. There also hasn’t been any detail of the “substantial” cuts that have been calculated. Evidently when we were told about the “transparency” we were going to be getting from the majority party in charge of the 2009 Legislature, they were actually talking about presenting information, in a public way, to help us as taxpayers understand what was involved in “governing” our way through this process.
We did get to hear a lot of public bashing for how the Governor’s proposal was horrifically out-of-touch with the needs of those who get paid from the state’s general fund. Now it seems like the Governor’s budget plan is going to be a reach to fund requiring a tax increase just to get to that unacceptable level of not spending enough.
Up until now, we haven’t been told by legislators of specific proposals for increasing taxes. The hearings for public input have been on proposals which haven’t advanced. Can we anticipate that the opportunity for input will come after the people in charge of the legislative outcome have locked down the final results for what will be decided – and then hold “committee of the whole” hearings to “discuss” and “decide”.
It’s been observed that those inside the Nevada Legislative Building might gain some insight from those outside the building on a reality of the real world. There might not be an opportunity for such a message to be delivered until November of 2010.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 4/30/2009 4:48 AM 
Categories: Nevada Budget
Tags: Nevada Government Spending State Budget
Categories: Nevada Budget
Tags: Nevada Government Spending State Budget
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