Hey, Jim! How's the "no new tax" thingy gonna work for us?

“He wants to share his ideology with the citizens. He will make all of his proposals known in the days ahead,” said Governor Jim Gibbons press secretary, Dan Burns.

No, no Dan. Thanks, gaaack, but I don’t need any more of Jim’s, urp, Tea Party ideology.

A dose of reality and critical thinking might be better as we slide down the rat hole to bankruptcy. Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons did another amazing impersonation of this man:

Delusional and deranged.

First things first: can the Governor and everybody else quit talking like the state of Nevada is some sort of Walton’s style Mom and Pop enterprise, with us all sitting down around the old kitchen table with a chewed up pencil and a scrap of paper. Ma and Pa Kettle deciding whether to cut education a little or a lot. State finances and responsibilities are, ummm, a bit more complicated than that. This homespun bullshit is designed to get our brains going in a direction other than to the heart of the matter.

If we are going to model the state after families, then I gotta tell you that although this family - here at Rancho Maven - has cut back on some non-essentials, we haven’t quit investing in our future. We continue to cautiously spend money where it has the best chance of an enhanced ROI. We continue to improve our home (the structure and systems), we get needed medical checkups and care (can’t afford to be sick due to neglect), we service our cars and continue to invest money wisely.

Pulling the plug on education or medical services would be stupid in the extreme.

This is why I can’t support the suggested rollbacks in K-12 education, higher education or Medicaid and essential social services.

Gibbons can close the prison in Carson City today, and if he has his way with education cuts, can open it back up a few years from now.

Throwing money at anything is never the right strategy. Insisting that the money which goes to each sector is a different thing.

Perhaps an audit of education and medical/social services would be in order to find out just how wisely the current funds are being spent. That’s what a wise business person would do, before they went nuts with the budget axe.

That’s what’s referred to as proactively good management.

It’s sad to hear Senator Steven Horsford - with the Democratic response - take the tippy-toe approach of saying that Nevada needs a new tax structure …. someday. How long have we been hearing that?

Personally, we at Rancho Maven would be alright with reduced days of service at local and state agencies. I think we can plan our hectic schedules around that. Reducing some state services, and cutting wages won’t meet the estimated shortfall, however.

The 900 lb. gorilla here that nobody wants to confront is the need to deepen the revenue stream. Any number of economists ( read some of my previous blog posts, keyword: taxes) say quite strongly that cutting taxes during a recession is simply nuts, and that flattening or more equitably distributing the tax burden (remember, not all ’ burdens’ are inherently bad ) is a big step toward the remedy.

One of the more telling points? The mining industry is reportedly offering to throw the state a bone of $100 million - give or take. That’s a bone for them. Chicken feed. That’s sort of suggestive as to how much money they’re carting back to Canada - being so insufficiently required to throw a fair amount into the communal pot.

Mining must be scared shitless.

Rock on, PLAN!

Then Gibbons goes on to take credit for thinking about green jobs in the state. Nary a mention of the tens of millions that Senator Harry Reid has sent to Nevada over the past year - particularly for green jobs of the future. I keep track, since much of the geothermal could be the source of business for the company I work for. It’s a freakin’ boatload of money. Jim’s assertions that Nevada just isn’t getting its’ fair share of money from Washington is hogwash.

Finally, I’m so bored hearing the Libertarians/Tea Party knotheads quack on about how bloated the state government is. You’d think we were awash in money.

Jeeze, with all that supposed money, why are we always at the bottom of every worthy measure?

Here’s what the Las Vegas Sun has to say:

“Economists usually measure things by what portion of the total economic pie they consume. By that measurement, as a percentage of gross domestic product, which is essentially the state’s total economic output, Nevada has the leanest state government in the country, according to a Sun analysis. Another way to measure the size of the government is to determine what the state spends per capita. By this measurement, Nevada has the third leanest government in the country, at $1,136 per person in 2007, ahead only of flinty New Hampshire and impoverished Michigan.

Finally, if the measurement is public employees per capita, Nevada is the leanest state government in the nation, with 3.86 percent of the population working in the public sector. (That number includes local governments, which tend to be more robust than state government here in Nevada.)”

Put that in your Tea Party pipe and smoke it, chump.

Here’s some interesting stuff from PLAN’s website about how much the so-called economic expansion had done for the state:

• The top 1% of Nevada’s population pays only 1.8% of their income in taxes compared to almost 9% for the bottom 20% of Nevada’s wage earners
• Nevada’s tax structure is the most regressive in the nation ranking 51st compared to 49 states and the District of Columbia
• Nevada is one of only four states without any type of corporate income tax
• Not surprisingly…
  Nevada ranks 4th in suicides and 5th in alcohol consumption per capita.

So where are we gonna cut? Deep into the flesh, it sounds like.

But heck, Jim’s got his.

The proposed 10% cuts don’t go far enough - even with tossed bones - to remedy the $881 million shortfall. So, if cuts alone can’t make it …?

The Governor says this problem can’t be fixed with *gimmicks. That’s a step in the right direction, Jim. Best that you include the tired gimmick of “No new taxes.”

P.S. - If it looks like a gimmick and sounds like a gimmick:

*  “I am also introducing the Education Gift Certificate. These will be available at many state facilities, like the DMV, or you’ll be able to download one off my website. You can use the gift certificate to donate money to a non-profit organization that will make sure your money is spent ONLY on teachers’ salaries. For those of you who can afford to help our teachers, I encourage you do it.” Governor Jim Gibbons

“In early January I unveiled the Gibbons Education Reform plan. My plan calls for parents, teachers and communities to be responsible for their local schools and in control of their children’s education. Bureaucrats and politicians in Washington, D.C. and Carson City, whose ideas of education reform start and end with writing a blank check, have no business dictating how your child is educated. We need to empower local school boards and parents to make decisions which are right for their children so they can decide how their kids are educated.”

Comments

[bluelyon]

When I read that bit about the "gift certificates" I was wondering if he was opening an Applebee's for Educators. Sheesh. As if teachers should be a the mercy of whether or not they get a "gift certificate."

And what "non-profit" organization is he talking about? Um, isn't the state government a non-profit? I mean, seriously, WTF?