In need of a vision

Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

In his inaugural address in 2007, Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons talked about shaping the state’s future and said, “Together we can create a new ideal of what it is to live the American dream.”

Two years later, the American dream in Nevada is battered, and Gibbons has done little to help. As Nevadans suffer through the worst economy since the Great Depression, Gibbons has cut many of the government programs and services designed to help people in times like these.

When he gives his State of the State speech Thursday, he is expected to unveil more drastic cuts in the budget he proposes to the Legislature. Nevada is facing a budget deficit of more than $2.3 billion over the next two fiscal years because of the recession.

As David McGrath Schwartz recently reported in the Las Vegas Sun, Gibbons asked state agencies to submit proposals to cut their budgets by 14 percent, 24 percent and 34 percent. That comes on the heels of hundreds of millions of dollars cut over the past two years. Gibbons is now proposing teachers and state workers take 6 percent pay cuts.

The governor and his few supporters on the far right say this is just belt-tightening, but that is a simplistic and foolish approach. Gibbons even glibly asked, “How many of these services do you need?”

It’s not as if we have a bloated state government. As UNR economics professor Elliott Parker reminded Sun readers in a recent commentary, the percentage of our population working in state government is the lowest in the nation. He also noted that although the state’s cost of living is higher than the national average, state workers earn wages that are about average.

The truth is that over the past few decades the state has not come close to having adequate levels of services, making budget cuts all the more painful. Sadly, what cuts are made will disproportionately affect those who desperately need government help, including those who have recently lost jobs.

What is also left unsaid by Gibbons and his supporters is that these cuts will erode Nevadans’ quality of life. It was only a few years ago that Las Vegas Valley hospital emergency rooms were not accepting patients because of the strain caused by an influx of mental health patients. The state didn’t have enough psychiatric hospital beds in the valley. The state has since added beds, but if those beds are cut back, expect longer waits in the emergency room.

The ripple effect of further reductions to a bare-bones government will be felt wide and hard. More than 90 percent of the state’s general fund budget goes to education, public safety, and health and human services, programs that affect every Nevadan in some way.

Of course, as the adage goes, you get what you pay for. Nevada has the second-lowest tax burden in the nation, resulting in a government that struggles to provide services. That’s good news for Gibbons and his supporters in the anti-government crowd who would love to bleed government dry.

The libertarian Nevada Policy Research Institute, for example, recently released a proposal suggesting eliminating agencies including the Business and Industry Department, which regulates a variety of businesses, including those in the real estate and mortgage industries. Doing away with regulation there would be idiotic. It was the lack of oversight of the mortgage business nationally that led to the industry’s meltdown, helping push the country into the current economic crisis.

That is hardly the “ideal” vision for the American dream in Nevada, and the Legislature should quickly dismiss such proposals. The void of leadership in the governor’s office has left the state in dire need of someone else to provide a vision for the future. It will be up to the Legislature.

Lawmakers will have to make some difficult decisions and overhaul the state’s antiquated tax code if there is to be any significant level of services left. The bottom line is: The state cannot drastically cut its way to a prosperous future.