Editorial: Cutting to the bone and its consequences

Monday, July 21, 2003 | 8:46 a.m.

People who oppose tax increases to balance the state's budget often say we need to shrink government instead. It's a refrain that is embraced by too many of this state's politicians. Last week the Sun carried a story that offered an example of what less government can mean -- and what terrible consequences it can create.

As the Sun's Jen Lawson reported, 36 percent of the Nevada Highway Patrol's trooper positions in the Las Vegas Valley are vacant. One of the biggest problems the Highway Patrol faces in hiring and retaining troopers is that their salaries are much lower than those paid to officers from municipal police departments. Because government has decided to save money by spending less on salaries, these jobs go unfilled, which means public safety for motorists has been jeopardized in the state's biggest and fastest-growing metropolitan area. With fewer troopers, more people drive recklessly and exceed the speed limit, a situation that leads to more crashes, injuries and deaths. And if someone is involved in an accident, the shortage of troopers means that their response time to an accident takes longer.

What Nevadans sometimes forget is that our government is spartan -- what we offer our residents in services is paltry compared to other states. The fastest-growing state in the nation hasn't had a statewide tax increase since 1991 -- and it shows. The next time you hear someone say that Nevada's state government is bloated, tell them about the situation faced by Highway Patrol troopers and many of the rest of our state employees, who year after year are asked to do more with less. They might think differently about government when they get back out on the road into dangerous traffic caused by a penny-wise, pound-foolish government.