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November 10, 2009

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Flashpoint:

With all the rhetoric flying between those who don’t want to have their budgets cut and those who see cuts as inevitable, a distillation of the problem seems in order…

By Jon Ralston (contact)

Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007 | 7:49 a.m.

By Jon Ralston Las Vegas Sun

With all the rhetoric flying between those who don't want to have their budgets cut and those who see cuts as inevitable, a distillation of the problem seems in order. You've heard these are just reductions in increases, which are not cuts, a both appealing and disingenuous argument. Here's what happens: Nevada's governor has to fund "roll-up costs" in education and other services. That is, more students, more pupils, more Medicaid recipients. That costs a lot of money - about 80 percent of the infamous 2003 tax increase was for roll-up costs. When times are good, taxes aren't needed; when they aren't good, taxes or cuts are required. Times are not good now. So that is the decision the state faces. Taxes or cuts. Got it?

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