Costs Cutting Not The Priority For The Special Session
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
The projections indicate that there is roughly a $900 Million difference between what the Nevada Legislature approved for spending in the 2009 Nevada Legislative Session and the revenue being achieved by the taxes making up the stream of income for state coffers. This shortfall clearly shows that in spite of a Billion dollar tax increase, also passed by the 2009 Nevada Legislature, the economy which pays for government spending isn’t capable of producing what the legislators want to spend.
It probably isn’t fair to judge the lack of progress of the first day of the 2010 Special Session too critically. Yes, the day was spent rehashing the same areas that have been the focus of the past couple of weeks of the Interim Finance Committee, but officially the non-committee members of the Legislature needed to get the same background, on the record, for going forward. Also in spite of the efforts to try and figure out the deals that are needed to arrange for a solution to the hole, if things were already settled and they were down to voting – we’d be upset about that too.
From the paperwork floating around in the hallways of the Legislative Building it would seem that the odds are that the legislature will take the Governor’s tax increase proposals and increase them, possibly digging deeper into the miner’s pockets to the tune of $100 Million (instead of the Governor’s $50 Million bump). There is also an indication that the cuts to the educational community will be halved from the Governor’s 10 percent proposal – gotta keep the teachers union from getting even more angry and need to keep the educational system’s elite from dealing with the economic reality that everyone else is having to cope with.
The plan is also all about taking any money that shows up on a state government balance sheet – never mind if those funds were paid as fees for other purposes…making the cuts that are necessary just isn’t in the cards with the folks who are in charge of deciding what gets decided.
It will take two Republican Senators to vote with the majority party to make the tax increase project possible. The probability is that when the deals are made and finalized, the Senate votes will be what they need to be in order to raise taxes on Nevada’s private sector again. How long that is all going to take will possibly be another element for the folks doing the maneuvering to play on, clouding their slam-dunk tax increase in the smoke of the foot-draggers not being responsible.
Hopefully taxpayers will see through the ruse and false choices being put forth and clearly recognize that unless different selections are made at the ballot box in November, the 2011 Nevada Legislative Session will be a taxfest like none other. The majority party, in control of the Nevada Legislature, believes that government comes first and that the private sector should be required to pay whatever they say the costs should be.
A proactive, taxpayer response is required to offer any hope for fiscal responsibility. It’s time to go to work on launching a campaign for reform geared to placing limits on the ability of spending and taxing us deeper into the hole.
The projections indicate that there is roughly a $900 Million difference between what the Nevada Legislature approved for spending in the 2009 Nevada Legislative Session and the revenue being achieved by the taxes making up the stream of income for state coffers. This shortfall clearly shows that in spite of a Billion dollar tax increase, also passed by the 2009 Nevada Legislature, the economy which pays for government spending isn’t capable of producing what the legislators want to spend.
It probably isn’t fair to judge the lack of progress of the first day of the 2010 Special Session too critically. Yes, the day was spent rehashing the same areas that have been the focus of the past couple of weeks of the Interim Finance Committee, but officially the non-committee members of the Legislature needed to get the same background, on the record, for going forward. Also in spite of the efforts to try and figure out the deals that are needed to arrange for a solution to the hole, if things were already settled and they were down to voting – we’d be upset about that too.
From the paperwork floating around in the hallways of the Legislative Building it would seem that the odds are that the legislature will take the Governor’s tax increase proposals and increase them, possibly digging deeper into the miner’s pockets to the tune of $100 Million (instead of the Governor’s $50 Million bump). There is also an indication that the cuts to the educational community will be halved from the Governor’s 10 percent proposal – gotta keep the teachers union from getting even more angry and need to keep the educational system’s elite from dealing with the economic reality that everyone else is having to cope with.
The plan is also all about taking any money that shows up on a state government balance sheet – never mind if those funds were paid as fees for other purposes…making the cuts that are necessary just isn’t in the cards with the folks who are in charge of deciding what gets decided.
It will take two Republican Senators to vote with the majority party to make the tax increase project possible. The probability is that when the deals are made and finalized, the Senate votes will be what they need to be in order to raise taxes on Nevada’s private sector again. How long that is all going to take will possibly be another element for the folks doing the maneuvering to play on, clouding their slam-dunk tax increase in the smoke of the foot-draggers not being responsible.
Hopefully taxpayers will see through the ruse and false choices being put forth and clearly recognize that unless different selections are made at the ballot box in November, the 2011 Nevada Legislative Session will be a taxfest like none other. The majority party, in control of the Nevada Legislature, believes that government comes first and that the private sector should be required to pay whatever they say the costs should be.
A proactive, taxpayer response is required to offer any hope for fiscal responsibility. It’s time to go to work on launching a campaign for reform geared to placing limits on the ability of spending and taxing us deeper into the hole.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 2/24/2010 6:05 AM 
Categories: Nevada Legislature
Tags: Nevada Legislative Special Session Nevada Budget State Spending Taxes
Categories: Nevada Legislature
Tags: Nevada Legislative Special Session Nevada Budget State Spending Taxes
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