Editorial: Budget is great — for some states

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004 | 9:05 a.m.

A president's election-year budget proposal usually contains something extra for swing states that could decide the campaign's outcome. Many political observers believe Nevada could be a pivotal swing state in this year's presidential election, so last Friday we read with much interest the "Washington Wire" feature in The Wall Street Journal that looked at what swing states stood to benefit under President Bush's budget.

Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were mentioned as states that will be pleased that Bush is tripling the funding for the Great Lakes cleanup program. Residents in Pennsylvania and West Virginia also were happy to learn that new funds are being proposed for mine reclamation. Cleanup of some federal nuclear facilities, such as those at Washington state's Hanford facility, also will see their biggest increases ever.

We didn't see Nevada's name mentioned in The Wall Street Journal report, however, which made us pause. So we turned to the White House itself for more information, looking at its state-by-state analysis of the budget, but we didn't find anything for Nevada other than budget increases for basic programs that all states benefit from. Granted, Nevada has just five electoral votes, but given that every state was critical last election, how could the president possibly have forgotten our state?

But then we remembered that the president didn't forget us at all. Bush is recommending that $880 million be spent on the Yucca Mountain project next year, a remarkable $303 million increase over what Congress approved this year for the proposed dump, which would store 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in Southern Nevada. We're positive that Nevadans, in November, won't forget President Bush's election-year "gift."