Tuesday, July 8, 2003 | 8:37 a.m.
On Saturday bipartisan leaders in the Nevada Legislature reached a tentative compromise on the state budget. As a concession to anti-tax Assembly Republicans, the legislative leaders proposed that $803 million in new taxes be raised over the next two years to balance the budget, a decrease from the $873 million that the Republican-led Senate had passed earlier. To put this concession into context, Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn originally had proposed nearly $1 billion in new taxes.
Nevertheless, on Sunday the Assembly Republican caucus refused to support the lower increase in taxes. This guarantees that the state's fiscal crisis will be prolonged, and only adds to the constitutional crisis that is unfolding. The Nevada Supreme Court is weighing whether to intervene since the Legislature has failed to pass a balanced budget.
The recalcitrant Republicans in the Assembly don't care that Nevada ranks among the worst of the states in providing services to its residents. And when it comes to schools, the Republicans say they want to increase funding. But these same Republicans, taking political hypocrisy to new heights, won't vote to increase taxes to educate our schoolchildren.
Raising enough revenue to balance the budget is incredibly difficult because of the two-thirds majority that is required to increase taxes. It only takes 15 of the 42 members of the Assembly to block a tax increase, and 15 of the 19 Assembly Republicans have stuck together to block every plan offered. No one should mistake unity for brains, however. This bloc's refusal to increase taxes to pay for the education of the state's children is something that an uncharitable public won't forget anytime soon.
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