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StumblePublished Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008 | 4:32 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008 | 4:34 p.m.
That's what Democrat Bob Coffin is saying in a lengthy auto-response to anyone who emails him. Check it out because it is, in its way, highly entertaining:
Hello and thanks for writing. You would be amazed at the amount of mail I am receiving about the December budget special session.
WHEN YOU WRITE, PLEASE BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR HOME ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER. THIS WILL BE USEFUL IF I HAVE TO CONTACT YOU.
Although I might not be able to respond to your letter I can assure you that I will read it. And, on that subject, I can give you a few thoughts which might tell you how I feel about the situation.
First, I have been working on how to approach the shortage in funds caused by the current recession. One year ago, I began urging my colleagues to solve this shortfall by going into special session to release the Rainy Day funds and begin hearings to determine which budgets could be reduced more easily than others. That idea was understandably not met with enthusiasm because a special legislative session in an election year carries political risks and because the Governor announced he would not call a session. Nevada's Constitution vests this power solely with the Governor.
Seven months later, he called a session to finally involve the Legislature in solving the problem. However, he did not allow the Legislature enough flexibility to address the problem because he did not relent from his position against the obvious answers.
In short, the Governor's call to session was too late to allow a deliberative process which could use some common sense to help balance the budget.
Now, we are deeper in the hole and the Governor seems sure to call another special session just six weeks before we are due to convene our regular, biennial session.
During this special session I will still find it difficult to respond to your letters because we will not have sufficient staff to assist us.
YOU CAN WATCH OUR COMMITTEE AND FLOOR PROCEEDINGS ON THE INTERNET AT: WWW.LEG.STATE.NV.US.
Again, I am sorry that your government is not working smoothly but your citizen-legislators will do their best to treat everyone with respect and courtesy. You might not like the outcome but compromise will be required to keep services intact for all of us.
IN ORDER TO FULFILL OUR CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATION TO SUPPORT THE SCHOOLS AND OTHER ESSENTIAL SERVICES WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO ENACT TAX INCREASES WHICH I WILL FIGHT TO ENSURE ARE TEMPORARY UNTIL WE HAVE REBUILT OUR FORMERLY SOUND FINANCIAL POSITION.
Thank you again,
Bob
I love it!!!
Spend money for the economy sake or we'll raise taxes! Good call senator.
Raising taxes will help those businesses that are laying off employees.
The state raised taxes 800 million a few years ago and now they are 1.5 Billion short. Double what they taxed!
Raise'em agian and lets see how far we can get the state budget down to.
Actually the last tax increase only pumped in about $300 million extra.
The $800 million figure was an increase over the previous year and it results from an economy that swiftly recovered from 2002-2003.
Basically it was taxes from the beginning of the national housing bubble.
Raising taxes is always a dumb move, but raising taxes when the economy is doing poorly is really, really, really stupid.
How about a full blown financial audit of the school district published for all to see. Then allow feed back......cost reduction the 101 of any small business owner. Usually the simplest solutions make the most sense, but then again common sense doesn't make political sense.