Budget priorities

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Trying to make up for the lack of leadership in the governor’s office, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Reno Mayor Bob Cashell say they plan to gather elected officials and community leaders to discuss the state budget crisis.

In a story in Tuesday’s Las Vegas Sun by David McGrath Schwartz, the mayors said they want to form a group to examine the state’s needs and how it can pay for them. Goodman, a Democrat, and Cashell, a Republican, are addressing a serious issue that Gov. Jim Gibbons has ignored.

Faced with a shortfall in tax revenue, Gibbons cut the state budget by 4.5 percent, but he did it without engaging the public and without clearly understanding the effects of those cuts.

That has been maddening for city and county government officials, especially because Gibbons recently talked about taking tax dollars from local governments to plug future holes in the state budget.

Melissa Subbotin, Gibbons’ spokeswoman, tried to dispute local leaders’ complaints, pointing out that the governor invited several local leaders to a meeting last year to discuss their concerns. “They were included in the budget process,” she said.

What she failed to note is that they were invited only after they complained about being locked out of the process. Their inclusion in the “budget process” was to take part in a dog-and-pony show designed so the governor could say he “listened” to local leaders.

Goodman and Cashell, a former lieutenant governor, are planning to form a group to come up with a list of priorities for the state and find ways to pay for them. The governor should be listening now. He could learn a lot.