Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007 | 7:28 a.m.
Gov. Jim Gibbons will never be confused with a deep thinker. When faced with a tough or complicated issue, he takes the easy way out, substituting platitudes for policy.
For example, although education and state government services clearly have been underfunded for years, Gibbons fought any tax increases during the past legislative session to improve our long-neglected schools, reduce gridlock on our roads and shore up what little Nevada offers in the way of social services.
The reason for Gibbons' decision to, in effect, abdicate doing what's right? Raising taxes would violate his no-new-taxes campaign pledge, a mindless mantra if there ever were one for an elected official.
Now, with sales and gaming revenue not increasing as much as had been projected for the first months of this new fiscal year, the governor is acting true to form. Instead of taking the responsible approach - convening a special session of the Legislature to pass reasonable tax increases to make up for any shortfall - the governor is asking agency chiefs to provide him with possible budget cuts.
No surprise there - at least not with this governor. But a comment he made shows just how out of touch he is.
"In a fairy-tale world, there would be no requirement to cut any budget, reduce any spending," Gibbons told the Las Vegas Sun in explaining his actions. "But we live in a world of reality and when revenues for the state aren't meeting expectations and projections, we have to be realistic."
We would like to know exactly what fairy-tale world Gibbons is referring to - and precisely what his definition of reality is.
The reality is that our schools desperately need more funding, and teacher pay is so bad it's a joke. Our roads are gridlocked, and although there was a $5 billion need demonstrated last year, the governor during the past legislative session would support only a $1 billion appropriation. Our social services are pathetic, scarcely helping those truly in need and eliminating altogether too many others who need a helping hand.
So the governor's answer is to make Nevada even more of a laughingstock, a state that usually is near the bottom of nationwide lists when it comes to providing for education and social services.
Despite Gibbons' "reality," the fact is the state is awash in wealth and there is no need to, as he would say, tighten our belt. There are thousands of corporations and individuals in this state who pay almost nothing in taxes. If these corporations can pay substantially higher taxes in other states, they should pay them here, too.
It is encouraging, then, to see people in and out of government standing up to Gibbons and saying there is a better way. Jim Rogers, the owner of a dozen television stations and the chancellor of Nevada's higher education system, was the first to rebuff the governor's request that the university system provide him with possible budget cuts, saying the business community, if enlisted, would support more funding instead.
The Clark County Commission, led by Chairman Rory Reid, also is saying no to the governor. Reid, in a letter to Gibbons, said complying with the governor's request to offer possible budget cuts for child welfare, juvenile justice and indigent medical care - programs in which the counties and state share the costs - "would imply that such cuts are necessary or acceptable."
Gibbons also hasn't won any friends - and has shown his usual lack of leadership - by failing to consult state legislative leaders, local government officials and other affected groups before asking for possible budget cuts.
"There's been no consultation," Reid said. "A state department head just told us the amount of the cut." A Republican lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, had this to say: "He certainly seems to be going out of his way to execute decisions in as antagonistic way as possible ... The guy doesn't seem to be acting in a savvy way."
Gibbons is behaving a lot like a fellow Republican, President Bush, who has a my-way-or-the-highway style of governing - and look how much good that incompetent leadership has done for this country, abroad and at home.
If there was fat in state government, and if the governor is the fiscal conservative he professes to be, then he should have vetoed the spending bills last legislative session. The fact that he signed the spending bills into law tells us he agreed they weren't excessive.
The reality is the governor has been presented with an incredible opportunity, if he were to call a special session of the Legislature, to address and fix this state's rickety tax structure and finally provide enough money for schools, roads and social services. That would be a legacy worth leaving.
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