Billable hours?

Friday, May 2, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

After adventurer Steve Fossett failed to return from a routine flight over Northern Nevada in September, search-and-rescue crews spent a month unsuccessfully searching for him at a cost of $687,000.

Hotel magnate Barron Hilton, who owns the Northern Nevada airstrip from which Fossett took off, voluntarily sent the state $200,000 to help offset the cost.

Now Gov. Jim Gibbons wants the Fossett family to pick up the rest of the tab.

On Thursday Gibbons’ press secretary, Ben Kieckhefer, tried to downplay initial reports that the governor intended to bill Fossett’s widow, Peggy. Kieckhefer said the governor would send a “formal request” asking for $487,000.

“This is unique,” Kieckhefer told the Las Vegas Sun, noting the size of the expense and the state’s current budget shortfall, estimated at more than $900 million.

We think this is unique because it has never been state policy to charge people for a search-and-rescue effort. Such an effort is typically seen as a government service, funded by the taxpayers.

By asking the Fossetts for money, the governor is setting a dangerous precedent — pay-as-you-go government. What’s next? Should crime victims pay for police to investigate? Should a person whose house is on fire write a check before firefighters battle the flames?

Unfortunately, those ideas may not be far-fetched to a governor who is desperately trying to keep his no-new-taxes pledge and cling to his mantra that government is inefficient, bloated and has a spending problem.

If that is true, why does he need to ask the Fossetts for anything? Why not do a little more trimming?

It may be that Gibbons is seeing the reality of the state budget: Nevada doesn’t collect enough in taxes to provide even basic services. For example, he is talking about providing services without raising taxes, such as with toll roads. Or by asking people like the Fossetts to “help.”

This shows the reality of Gibbons’ no-new-taxes pledge: The government bills you instead of taxes you.