The Call For A Special Nevada Spending Study
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
The Nevada Legislature is planning to spend somewhere around $500,000 to hire someone to do a special study on the state’s taxes. They feel that we don’t have enough sources of tax revenue to provide them with the resources they want to spend. This past legislative session was especially troublesome for these elected representatives, since they didn’t get to spend all that they would have liked – although they did tell us that they cut the budget and in doing so authorized state spending to be more than it was for the last two-year budget cycle.
Given the Legislature’s belief that a special tax study will help find the magical source of tax revenues which knows no limitations -- we as taxpayers need to start our own study -- one oriented to finding out how to put limitations on the amount of money the Nevada Legislature can spend. With a likely special Nevada Legislative session coming later this fall, we could also get some practice in by suggesting specific areas that we think lawmakers should cut (although this time that would mean something more like spending less than before).
So far most of the reductions (when they have taken place) have come in the form of across the board cuts with every department or agency of state government being asked to keep from spending a specified percentage of the money they had budget authority to spend. Sharing the pain equally might sound noble and appropriate, but I’m going to suggest that it might be better to identify the priority things that state spending should be spent on and then not give any state money to those things that aren’t on the top of the list. In some ways this was what I thought the 2009 Nevada Legislature was working at doing during the session and behind the closed doors where they gathered at times to figure out what was going to be the end result…the trouble seemed to be that they couldn’t (or didn’t) find anything that wasn’t “essential”.
As in the case of a special consultant for examining tax potentials, those of us who aren’t involved in working off past spending budgets might be able to share a set of fresh ideas for things that shouldn’t be getting any more state funding or should be getting less than what has been paid out.
Taking the approach of picking the areas which get money – and the areas that don’t isn’t going to be easy or painless. Those left on the outside of the funding circle will probably go so far as to say that it isn’t fair.
The thinking behind this suggestion isn’t supposed to be fair for those who cash checks drawn from state spending accounts – we do hope that it will be fairer for those who are paying into the state and making it possible to be writing the checks that state spenders are spending.
The steps needed to bring about the state spending study:
In each of these steps it is critical to get citizen involvement and input, well beyond a hand-picked group of stakeholders who share with the rest of us their “vision” for Nevada’s future.
Hopefully, you will start here by sharing your comments…
The Nevada Legislature is planning to spend somewhere around $500,000 to hire someone to do a special study on the state’s taxes. They feel that we don’t have enough sources of tax revenue to provide them with the resources they want to spend. This past legislative session was especially troublesome for these elected representatives, since they didn’t get to spend all that they would have liked – although they did tell us that they cut the budget and in doing so authorized state spending to be more than it was for the last two-year budget cycle.
Given the Legislature’s belief that a special tax study will help find the magical source of tax revenues which knows no limitations -- we as taxpayers need to start our own study -- one oriented to finding out how to put limitations on the amount of money the Nevada Legislature can spend. With a likely special Nevada Legislative session coming later this fall, we could also get some practice in by suggesting specific areas that we think lawmakers should cut (although this time that would mean something more like spending less than before).
So far most of the reductions (when they have taken place) have come in the form of across the board cuts with every department or agency of state government being asked to keep from spending a specified percentage of the money they had budget authority to spend. Sharing the pain equally might sound noble and appropriate, but I’m going to suggest that it might be better to identify the priority things that state spending should be spent on and then not give any state money to those things that aren’t on the top of the list. In some ways this was what I thought the 2009 Nevada Legislature was working at doing during the session and behind the closed doors where they gathered at times to figure out what was going to be the end result…the trouble seemed to be that they couldn’t (or didn’t) find anything that wasn’t “essential”.
As in the case of a special consultant for examining tax potentials, those of us who aren’t involved in working off past spending budgets might be able to share a set of fresh ideas for things that shouldn’t be getting any more state funding or should be getting less than what has been paid out.
Taking the approach of picking the areas which get money – and the areas that don’t isn’t going to be easy or painless. Those left on the outside of the funding circle will probably go so far as to say that it isn’t fair.
The thinking behind this suggestion isn’t supposed to be fair for those who cash checks drawn from state spending accounts – we do hope that it will be fairer for those who are paying into the state and making it possible to be writing the checks that state spenders are spending.
The steps needed to bring about the state spending study:
- Learn and understand how state spending is allocated now (who gets how much)
- Consider the results of what the spending is accomplishing (are we getting our money’s worth)
- Determine and establish the priority areas where Nevada State government spending is required
In each of these steps it is critical to get citizen involvement and input, well beyond a hand-picked group of stakeholders who share with the rest of us their “vision” for Nevada’s future.
Hopefully, you will start here by sharing your comments…
Posted by Doug Busselman at 9/29/2009 4:25 AM 
Categories: Nevada Budget
Tags: Nevada Limits on state spending Interim Finance Tax Study
Categories: Nevada Budget
Tags: Nevada Limits on state spending Interim Finance Tax Study
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