Sunday, June 10, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.
A couple of weeks before the 2007 Legislature began, we wrote a series of editorials that pointed out the serious problems confronting Nevada. We argued that accepting mediocrity, as our elected leaders had done so often in the past, could not continue if Nevada truly was serious about dealing with some of the most pressing issues facing our state.
The issues at the top of the list included public schools, which have been woefully underfunded for decades and are failing too many of our children, and state roads and highways that are unsafe and gridlocked, not only creating a nightmare for residents but also imperiling our tourist-based economy.
But Gov. Jim Gibbons and the Legislature failed to deliver in the '07 session, and they did so miserably. For instance, the spending approved for education will barely keep pace with our runaway population growth.
When it came to our roads, the failure was even more pronounced. It is estimated that the funding shortfall facing the state regarding major road projects is $5 billion through 2015, but the spending plan put together by the governor and lawmakers totals just $1 billion. And we thought "new math" was dead.
It is appalling that a prosperous state such as ours will not provide its children with a decent education and tap the necessary money to ease traffic gridlock.
Most of the blame can be tied to the Republican governor. No matter how negligible a tax increase might be, no matter how fair it might be and no matter how worthy the program was that would have received funding , Gibbons' response to raising new revenue was pathetically predictable: No new taxes.
Gibbons' governing philosophy isn't just simple - it is simple-minded.
"No new taxes" can make for a great campaign slogan, and more often than not it probably will get you elected in Nevada, but that doesn't make it right - especially when the needs in this state have been ignored for so long.
Another thing about Gibbons that has become evident in his first few months in office is how eerily similar the former five-term congressman is to President Bush. They're both nakedly partisan, disingenuous and lack ing in intellectual depth.
And though Gibbons was preaching a "One Nevada" theme after he was inaugurated, it was all rhetoric and for show, kind of like Bush touting "compassionate conservatism." The reality is that Gibbons was practicing the politics of division. It certainly helps him with his conservative base, but it does nothing to reach the common ground required to address the state's woes.
Gibbons is stubborn to the point that he doesn't allow reality to get in the way of his view of the world. Just as Bush refused to acknowledge a civil war was going on in Iraq and that the war was going badly long after casualties mounted and that country devolved into chaos, Gibbons thinks everything will go swimmingly in Nevada without adequate funding. Has he seen recent achievement scores in our public schools? Has he actually sat in gridlock during rush hour?
We understand that Gibbons' refusal to budge on raising taxes made seeking common ground unlikely. It was still disappointing, however, that lawmakers didn't put him on the spot, sending him legislation boosting funding for schools and roads, daring him to veto it.
Part of the problem is that lawmakers live in fear - principally the fear of not getting reelected. In that respect, they also fear the cudgel of the anti-tax, anti-everything Las Vegas Review-Journal and getting roughed up by that newspaper if they vote for higher taxes. But the facts, and how they compare to the last two times that state taxes were raised, just don't bear out their skittishness.
After the 1991 Legislature voted to increase taxes at the urging of Democratic Gov. Bob Miller, there was no political fallout , despite Republican efforts to capitalize on the increase. Overall, Democrats picked up seats in the Legislature at the next election. In fact, four of the five Assembly Republicans from Southern Nevada who had voted against the tax increase were defeated in 1992. And all that dire talk of a tax increase harming the state's economy didn't materialize, as the state experienced a phenomenal economic boom.
It wasn't until 12 years later that the state voted to raise taxes again, this time at the request of Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn. In 2003 not a single legislator who had voted to increase taxes lost in the general election. Although one Republican who voted to raise taxes did lose a primary race, two Republicans who had voted against the tax increase lost in the general election. And the economy's performance after the tax increase? It never has been better.
So the Las Vegas Review-Journal can huff and puff all it wants about opposing taxes and threatening to punish those who raise them, but it just can't blow down a house built with facts, especially when those facts clearly present a need for more spending in what has been the fastest-growing state during the past two decades.
Although legislators need to have more resolve and do what is right, the business community, including the gaming industry, isn't about to merit inclusion in an any update of "Profiles in Courage."
The business community did support raising taxes to pay for more road construction, but business leaders didn't go to the mat to seek its approval. Indeed, near the end of the legislative session, too many of the heavyweights in the gaming industry were more worried about keeping their tens of millions of dollars in "green building" tax breaks than they were about advocating a long-term plan to fund our schools and roads.
The irony, of course, is that such a dysfunctional , mediocrity-breeding organizational structure as the legislative process in Carson City would not be allowed in the private sector, at least at a business with any hope of succeeding.
But, then again, these business executives (who supply much of the campaign contributions to legislative candidates) know they can push around lawmakers and get exactly what they want.
The next time the business community complains about the lack of quality graduates from our high schools, community colleges and universities, the public shouldn't forget that too many of these business leaders haven't lifted a finger to seek more funding for schools. You reap what you sow.
Although it's obvious that Nevada has many shortcomings, one of the reasons there hasn't been outrage by the public is that our economy has been so good for so long. Nevada has had at least two decades of a robust economy that shows no signs of slackening.
The economic good times have also been a narcotic of sorts, numbing too many Nevadans to the problems around us. In a way, our very prosperity unfortunately helps mask the failures in our quality of life that should be so apparent.
If the people of Nevada truly want this to be a state with a well-educated workforce and a transportation system that isn't choked by rush-hour gridlock, then they are going to have to elect representatives to Carson City who will stand up to Gibbons and some of the powerful interests that are content with Nevada being the way it is.
This isn't a Democratic or Republican issue. We're talking about what's good for Nevada. But as long as Nevadans send politicians like Gibbons and his supporters to Carson City, then it is just going to be more of the same, and mediocrity will rule.
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