Letter: With TASC, no need for Legislature

Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005 | 8:24 a.m.

Jon Ralston's Nov. 6 column on state Sen. Bob Beers' proposed Tax and Spending Control initiative (TASC) bears some further analysis and commentary. TASC, I assume (since the senator has not yet released the wording), will be modeled after the Colorado Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR), which was passed about 13 years ago.

After those 13 years of degrading state services, the voters of Colorado on Nov. 1 voted to suspend TABOR for the next five years. This was done to save the TABOR-induced financially troubled programs such as the park system, collapse of the college and university systems, limited capacity of the prison system, cutbacks in emergency services and programs for the elderly and environment.

These were just a few of the programmatic problems created by the Colorado initiative. TABOR creates and mandates a formula method of establishing government operating budgets that is predicated on population growth and cost of living.

If this is what Sen. Beers is proposing, I have a suggestion. If TASC is qualified for the ballot and passed by the voters of Nevada, there will no longer be a need for the Legislature and the governor's office. The reason for this is that any legislation requiring funding cannot be funded due to the restrictions of TASC and all existing funded programs could only be increased in accordance with the TASC formula.

In light of this, I do not understand why Sen. Beers would like to occupy the office of governor, when there will be nothing to do or approve. Even in Colorado, the Legislature and the governor said they were helpless in developing programs and responding to state problems because of TABOR restrictions.

Should TASC pass, I suggest we do away with the Legislature and the office of the governor, and replace them with a computer. Maybe then we could save some real money!

Gil Eisner

Las Vegas

Editor's note: The writer is a retired property tax consultant and served as executive deputy to the Los Angeles County assessor during the 1980s.