Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Editorial: Cutting to the bone

Once again, Gov. Jim Gibbons' reactionary leadership style and inane adherence to his "no new taxes" pledge could imperil necessary government services throughout the state.

With news of potential downturns in sales and gaming tax revenue, the governor ordered a hiring freeze and told state agencies they had a week to come back with plans to cut their budgets.

Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston first reported details of Gibbons' consideration of cutting the budget in his RalstonFlash e-mail newsletter on Monday. That was apparently the first time Democratic legislative leaders and budget experts in the Legislature heard about the possibility.

The specter of cuts rightly rankled higher education system Chancellor Jim Rogers, whose schools are already running on tight budgets. Rogers, a successful businessman, is a master of budget details. Appearing on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston," Rogers said he asked the governor why higher education is going to be cut.

"He said, 'Well, Jim, we just threw those figures out there, but it may be after we sit down and analyze all of it, maybe higher education won't have to take any hit,' " Rogers recounted. " 'We'll have to go through and negotiate it on through.' "

Just throwing figures out is hardly a sound way to govern ; nor is Gibbons' simplistic approach. Cutting the budget may rally support in right-wing political circles, but most reasonable people understand the state budget doesn't come close to addressing Nevada's needs. That is a fact the governor consistently ignores, as shown by his "victory" in the Legislature, holding new highway construction funding to $1 billion when five times that is needed.

Gibbons is asking state agencies to come up with a plan to make 5 percent cuts for each of the next two years. That might be chump change if Nevada weren't already so far behind. Rogers told Ralston that making such a cut sounds simple if you were to "go through and say we've got X number of professors in the English department (and say) let's cut one out of every five, or one out of every six, or one out of every 10. The problem is we don't have 10 out of 10 that we should have. We've got 10 out of 20 that we should have. When you start with half a staff and you start to cut that, pretty soon you're down to nothing left."

Gibbons doesn't understand that. He likes to use the line that the state has to live within its means, as if the state were a family having to make cuts to its household budget during tough times because the parents' paychecks are the only sources of revenue. But that is a ridiculous analogy.

If Gibbons wants to use an analogy, here is an appropriate one:

Nevada is like a highly profitable trucking company, making hundreds of millions of dollars in profits every year but sending its drivers out with bald tires because, in its quest for even more riches, it doesn't want to properly outfit its drivers - even if it means jeopardizing the safety of the drivers and the public.

This is exactly what is going on in Nevada, as companies that have the means, including corporations that pull money out of Nevada to their headquarters in other states, don't pay enough in taxes to take care of our needs here. Our inadequate public schools, roads and social services are like balding tires, ready to experience a blowout at any minute.

Gibbons should face reality and start working with legislative leaders of both parties on ways to put the state on a proper fiscal footing by creating an equitable, broad-based tax system instead of one heavily dependent on tourism.

The fact is , Nevada's businesses are hardly hurting , and they could certainly pay modestly higher taxes that would preclude the need for budget cuts.

What Gibbons doesn't understand - or doesn't care about - is that a downturn in tax revenue doesn't lessen the effect of continued growth in this state. Tourists still arrive in droves , as do new residents, and they still expect services. Cutting the state budget will only exponentially compound the state's problems.

archive