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State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, at the lectern, and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, right, announce at a Las Vegas news conference a timetable for their response to the state’s revenue crisis and Gov. Jim Gibbons’ budget, which proposes deep cuts in state services.
By J. Patrick Coolican (contact) 
Friday, Jan. 30, 2009 | 2 a.m.
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There are two ways to look at the performance of top Democrats in the run-up to the legislative session, during which elected officials will have to deal with an unprecedented fiscal crisis.
Politically astute and prudent, or overly cautious and maybe even a bit craven.
From one vantage point, they’ve made a sound, maybe masterful move in refusing to offer any specific plan of their own.
This continued Thursday, when Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, both Las Vegas Democrats, stood in front of solar panels at a union hall and held a news conference to unveil a ... calendar.
The Legislature, which convenes next week, will first determine what can be cut, what tax breaks and abatements can be eliminated, and what must be saved, they said.
Then, after they arrive at a target number March 30, they will present a revenue plan April 17.
The logic here is plain to see:
Gov. Jim Gibbons, the first-term Republican, released his budget blueprint two weeks ago, and it’s been roundly criticized ever since, especially his proposals to cut teacher salaries 6 percent and to slash money for higher education by 36 percent.
Gibbons was always boxed in, but he made the arguably courageous decision to propose cuts to higher ed, teachers’ salaries and other areas important to the middle class, as well as money for hospital shareholders, while dealing a softer blow to the poorest and most vulnerable.
But now the broad middle, the bulk of the Nevada electorate, is giving him a beating for his proposed budget, with even the staunchly anti-tax Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce attacking his cuts to the universities and teacher pay.
Gibbons was even getting it from his usually supportive right flank, attacking him for breaking his no-taxes pledge by supporting a hotel-room tax increase in his budget. He said he could support it because voters approved the tax in an advisory question on last year’s November ballot. When all was said and done: A Reno Gazette-Journal poll showed 69 percent expressing disapproval of Gibbons’ performance.
Buckley and Horsford have stood by and watched, except when they were holding hearings to drive home how untenable Gibbons’ cuts are.
Though Nevada’s electorate has changed significantly, evidenced by President Barack Obama’s crushing victory here, taxes are still a dirty word in a state with a long libertarian past.
So, even though everyone knows the tax proposal is coming, little can be gained in offering it up — or even talking about it — until you absolutely have to.
The approach prevents organized opposition from lining up.
“It’s a question of how do you finesse this into being,” and waiting is the smart play, said one veteran lobbyist.
A gentle approach makes it more likely Horsford can persuade the business lobby and two or more Senate Republicans to come along. He needs those two votes because the constitution requires two-thirds of the lawmakers in each chamber to approve a tax increase, and Democrats are now two votes short. (Democrats control two-thirds of the Assembly.)
This approach also buys Buckley and Horsford time: The federal stimulus bill, which will likely pass in the coming weeks, will probably rain some money on Nevada, especially for the state’s beleaguered Medicaid, the joint state-federal program that provides health care for the poor.
But here’s the other view — the Buckley-Horsford process looks cowardly and could backfire. Their approach is akin to saying Nevadans can’t handle this truth: Nothing in life is free, and the schools, the health care and the roads are only as good as the amount you are willing to pay (or can get tourists to pay.)
Rather than using this opportunity to rally the Obama-fied public to the idea that Nevada’s tax system is unfair and doesn’t raise enough revenue from those most able to pay for better schools and such, Buckley and Horsford are treating the inevitable tax increase like a shameful family secret. A veteran Democratic operative questioned this approach as out of step with a public ready to make hard choices.
That same Gazette-Journal poll had a plurality of Nevadans favoring a mix of tax increases and spending cuts.
At the news conference Thursday, Buckley and Horsford said it was imperative that the Legislature deliberate thoughtfully, and do so in a transparent process that will lead to both short-term stability but also a long-term path to shared prosperity for all Nevadans.
If that’s the intention, Nevadans may be asking: Why are they being so opaque?
The Executive Budget also includes the virtual destruction of the state health plan for employees, with hundreds of millions of dollars proposed to be taken this biennium and in future years from what is only an average health plan compared to other states. This is yet another key aspect of a plan that balances the budget on the backs of state employees and retirees as well as higher education. Apparently the plan is to tax students and their families with huge increases in tuition to fund higher education, and tax state employees and retirees to fix the rest of the shortfall. That plan is unfair and short-sighted, and must be rejected.
Someone has to be the adult and tell the kids no. Someone has to be the parent and say sorry we just don't have enough money for that. Someone has to ignore the kids temper tantrums and hysterics. Governor Gibbons is becoming more of the parent all the time as Jimmy Rogers and Barbie Buckley bash him for doing the right thing.
"That same Gazette-Journal poll had a plurality of Nevadans favoring a mix of tax increases and spending cuts."
If it is 50/50 mix then that means there still will be hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts.
Buckley and her friends are hiding under the rocks.
Buckley in her speech could have explained the need for a billion dollar tax increase but she did not.
Buckley in her speech could have explained the need for hundreds of millions in dollars in budget cuts but she did not.
She punted and continues to do so.
That is not leadership.
"If it is 50/50 mix then that means there still will be hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts."
Not if we get billions from the federal government in bailout money for education.
She is wise to wait and see what comes out of Washington. That is why she is beginning her plan with figuring out the base level of need for Nevada's programs.
I guess jfNance32 didn't know that the budget doesn't have to be passed for many more months. They have time to debate and come up with solutions. They have time to see what comes out of Congress. He just wants to stomp his feet like a child and demand something now.
LOL, silly!
Why can't this governor just give us everything we want. Who cares if there isn't enough to go around, just take it from someone else. Can't we pass legislation to make people come and gamble from other states. There must be a solution other than cutting expenses to match the income. That's unAmerican and a total Obamanation.
Gibbon's our so called Governor, is not going to give the people of Nevada nothing... The only thing Gibbons is going to do, is make sure his pockets are lined with gold when he leaves office. Gibbons hates Clark County and is starting to turn against Washoe County...
The trillion dollar "bailout" will according to one estimate adds $3,500 in interest and debit payments to the backs of our children.
People seem to very happy that the Feds will drown our children in debt to help pay for the day-to-day operations of state governments.
Will the Feds keep charging our children's credit cards for years to come to fund day-to-day operations of state governments?
Obama is already going for trillion dollar annual deficits as far as the eye can see. Perhaps he is going after $2 trillion dollar deficits.
When this trillion dollar monster of welfare cash giveaways, state day-to-day operations funding and stupid pork spending does very little to the economy, then I wonder if Obama will pass another one, another one and another one until we are in the death clasp of hyper inflation.
Buckley will continue to practice her punting skills.
One day, she will have to present hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts. I am sure that ksand99 will praise her for "courage" and "leadership" on that day.....LOL.
The Green Jobs Initiative will require a lot more than training centers to accomplish the desired outcomes. More on this at www.nvfbblog.org
An open letter to the top democrats:
You can wait and re-arrange deck chairs on the Titanic all you want, but there will come a time (very soon) where you are going to have to do something. Nevadans are tired of this road show.
Either jump ship or start bailing.
I have a feeling you are trying to wait out the Stimulus package to see if that just takes care of it.
You are spineless, even the faithful are questioning you.