Editorial: Standing up to criticism

Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2005 | 9:21 a.m.

Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn has been named one of the nation's top five governors by Time magazine in part because of his $830 million tax hike in 2003 that angered fellow Republicans and launched a brief recall campaign against him.

In its Web editions Sunday, Time called Guinn's controversial tax increase "a realistic step to shore up the overstretched budget of the nation's fastest-growing state," adding that his overall approval rating of almost 60 percent shows Guinn has the leadership skills to pull off what for most would have been political suicide.

Raising taxes brought Guinn considerable criticism from many right-wing Republicans in the Nevada Legislature. The Wall Street Journal's far-right editorial page in 2003 went so far as to call Guinn the nation's worst Republican governor. The criticism from the radical right couldn't have been more off-base and was devoid of reality.

Guinn, a fiscal conservative who is entering the last year of his second and final term, took office in 1999 at the end of a 10-year-period in which Nevada's population increased 66 percent, to almost 2 million residents. Despite that growth, Guinn first re-organized the state government by cutting 800 positions, freezing another 1,600 and opposing proposals that would have created 3,000 new state jobs.

Time also noted Guinn's efforts to broaden the state government's revenue base beyond tourism-driven sales tax and gaming. Those two sources provide two-thirds of the state's income, a concentration that nearly proved disastrous when the state's economy plunged after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The slowdown resulted in a budget deficit approaching $1 billion.

Other achievements mentioned by Time include Guinn's fight against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, his Millennium Scholarship program for helping high school graduates pay for college and privatizing the state's workers' compensation program.

Critics told Time that Guinn has fallen short of his desire to improve health care and has failed to find long-term funding for some initiatives, such as the Millennium Scholarships. But, as Time noted, he did have the guts to stand up to the right-wing base in his own political party and made some far-reaching decisions based on what was best for Nevada. We hope future governors display the same kind of leadership.