No time like later to clue public in on crisis budget

By J. Patrick Coolican

Friday, April 3, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Nevada legislators are busy deliberating and being deliberative, so don’t ask them how much money they need or where they’re going to get it.

That’s the takeaway from a news conference here with bipartisan leadership of the Assembly and Senate.

Earlier in the week, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, a Las Vegas Democrat, promised to offer up a dollar figure of cuts they would restore to Gov. Jim Gibbons’ proposed budget. Gibbons’ two-year budget was filled with cuts viewed by leaders of both parties as untenable. It was about one-third less than the 2007-08 budget when inflation, caseload growth and other automatic costs were factored in, and it included a 6 percent pay cut for teachers and a 36 percent cut to higher education.

With Senate Republican leader Bill Raggio and Assembly Republican leader Heidi Gansert standing aside at an awkward distance Thursday, Buckley delivered the same message she and Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford have been giving for months. We have a process, and we’re following the process.

“I want to stress how dire the situation is,” Buckley said. And the situation is worsening, she said.

The latest bit of bad news, which came earlier in the week: Revenue will be $400 million to $500 million less than forecast by the Economic Forum, the state’s official financial crystal ball watcher. All told, the state needs to find $2.16 billion to maintain service levels.

So, the obvious questions. What are “essential services”? How much will come in cuts, and how much in tax increases?

Sorry, for those answers, come back May 1 when the state Economic Forum comes out with new numbers on how much money the state will have for the next two years.

Until then, they’re deliberating on it.

But, as one observer pointed out: Why do you need to know how much money you have to determine what “essential services” are?

To be fair, the budget committees meet early most mornings and are engaged in the rigorous process of going through the executive budget and determining what to restore, a process that isn’t yet complete. They also aren’t sure how much stimulus money will come from the federal government.

Sources say Raggio vetoed the idea of putting out a magic number Thursday, which would have begun to let the public in on the unmentionable: the size of the tax increase.

Tax increase? What tax increase?

“We’re engaged in a deliberative process,” Buckley said.

The fear, and one that’s entirely reasonable, is that as soon as talk of taxes begins among legislators, opposition will begin lining up against them.

Mention a sales tax on services? Here come the lawyers and accountants who don’t want to be taxed.

A corporate income tax? Here come the corporations.

To Raggio’s credit, he said lawmakers are crafting a lean budget and that everything, including a tax increase, is on the table. He said he’d never seen anything like this situation in his more than three decades in the upper chamber.

Raggio said he came to the news conference to represent the “loyal minority.” He lamented that the group didn’t have more information for the public, though he is known as someone who keeps everything under wraps until the very end.

About the only revealing comments came from John Ritter, CEO of Focus Property Group, a big developer in Southern Nevada. His workforce is just 10 percent of what it was at its peak. He said the budget can’t be balanced with cuts alone.

We can’t keep bringing up the rear on all the quality of life statistics, he said, referring obliquely to our school and health care rankings.

Ritter even gave a number: $1 billion. That’s the size of the tax increase we need, he said.

Buckley had to love that.

Oh, no, said the speaker, who is considering a run for governor. No billion-dollar tax increase around these parts.

Also noteworthy: Ritter said there’s broad consensus in the business community that a tax increase is needed. He said he talks with a working group regularly, which includes big players from gaming, mining and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.

He said the tax increase ought to be stable, broad-based and fair.

So maybe it’s time to get on with it.

All in good, deliberate time.

Sun Capital Bureau reporter David McGrath Schwartz contributed to this story.