Jon Ralston imagines what could happen at today’s budget summit - but probably won’t

Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

With the governor to his geographical left proposing 10percent budget cuts, the former governor to his ideological left forecasting a $500million deficit and everyone else left producing a cacophony of ideas and criticisms, Jim Gibbons will convene The Summit to Save the State this afternoon.

Gibbons has bungled the public relations aspect of this pseudo- or incipient crisis from Day One, and his limited communication skills have not helped . Three weeks ago, without talking to anyone - lawmakers, legislative fiscal folks, affected parties - Gibbons prepared a document that outlined 5 percent budget cuts in each of the next two years.

The governor subsequently insisted the document was never meant to be made public (what universe does he live in?) and that these were only contingencies (yet the document was labeled "Budget Cuts, 2007-2008 Biennium"). Gibbons then seemed surprised at the panic, real or hyped, and at the criticism, most notably from higher education system Chancellor Jim Rogers and local governments, also left out of the loop.

So today is about a do-over for the governor , a chance to bring in affected parties - or at least affected politicians - and discuss the budget problem, its severity and what steps to take. Then comes the hard part: He has to do something.

It's easy, and perhaps cynical, to imagine a scenario today in the old Assembly Chambers in Carson City in which Gibbons and the other assembled pols will bloviate for the media and accomplish nothing. But let us ignore history, don our rose-colored glasses and see what might be. As California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is contemplating 10 percent cuts and former Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn is predicting we will be $500 million behind by the next budget cycle, these questions desperately need to be answered:

All Gibbons has to do is announce, in accordance with state law, that he is asking agencies to reserve funds that will disappear only if the economy tanks. But will he continue to stubbornly not hold certain areas, especially child welfare, harmless?

This is easy to forget , but no one should let Gibbons and other budget hawks do so: The Legislature overwhelmingly approved and the governor signed a billion-dollar increase in spending. And Mr. No New Taxes bragged to my colleague Jeff Gillan on Las Vegas ONE shortly after the session that despite that 10-figure increase, "we never go back and ask government to tighten its belt ... that's what I wanted to do."

So if indeed Gibbons made government thinner, it doesn't have much fat, right? And perhaps that's why he - and nobody else, for that matter - made no serious efforts to actually cut the budget in the past (or any other) session.

Instead of cutting services in a services-poor state, why not at least consider slashing taxes on the average Nevadan and shifting that burden (thus making it tax-neutral) to businesses that pay little or nothing?