Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Sunday, March 8, 2009 | 3 a.m.
The whine season has begun early in Carson City this year.
As unemployment soars to record highs and gaming stocks drop to record lows, lawmakers who have to make the difficult decisions and special interests who want to influence the Gang of 63 lament their lot, point their fingers and vent their spleens.
The legislative sandbox rarely is a place where prudence supplants petulance, where deliberation replaces consternation. But this session seems demonstrably worse, with the frustrating search for an adult willing to take a mature stance only surpassed by the elusive quest for anyone willing to act on principle.
All of this comes during a metastasizing economic crisis that threatens to take many Strip executives out of cozy boardrooms and into bankruptcy courtrooms, sending reverberations throughout a state where double-digit unemployment may last until next year and beyond.
The session is nearly a third over and a pervasive sense of deja vu is settling in. Governor presents controversial idea(s). Legislature declares them DOA. Partisan sniping ensues between lawmakers and governor and among legislators. Final budget/revenue plans are an abomination, some kind of Frankensteinian creation that has no policy underpinnings but fills a budget hole with cobbled together revenue Band-Aids.
Despite all the chatter about lawmakers, infused with courage by term limits, seeking a new way, I sense the path of least resistance will not be resisted in the end.
My cynicism level is heightened by the mini-dust-up last week over what to do with the unemployment compensation component of the stimulus package, and Gov. Jim Gibbons seizing the occasion of a joint tax hearing to paint the Democrats as having a secret plan to raise revenue.
Gibbons’ performance on the unemployment stimulus money is emblematic. He attacked congressional Democrats but would not commit to a stand on the revenue — even though in July he gushed in a release: “Studies indicate that each dollar paid out in unemployment insurance benefits creates more than two dollars in economic activity in the state … So aside from helping people who are struggling to make ends meet during this difficult economic downturn, this can provide a substantial stimulus to Nevada’s economy.”
This is the new Jim Gibbons, who claims to be a ramrod anti-tax believer but showed the flexibility of an Olympic gymnast in genuflecting to the feds for the stimulus package. The same Jim Gibbons who made his congressional bones as a conservative Republican opposing wasteful government spending, then eagerly grabbed the 10-figure stimulus package many Republicans deride as wasteful government spending — a man whose “no new tax” persona is belied by several de facto taxes embedded in his budget, including the third largest tax increase in history he will sign after the Senate passes the $220 million room tax increase Monday.
Flexibility he has in spades. Principles? Not so much.
But — so far, at least — the Democrats have not been effective foils. Legislative leaders seem to believe that by pointing out that the Gibbons budget is horrendous, they can lay the groundwork for what is euphemistically being called “a revenue package.”
It’s all a charade to get to a number — the eventual amount of the tax increase. Indeed, the Democrats also have a no-new-taxes philosophy, just with an accent on a different word. That is, there are no new taxes under the sun — and for months, there have been revenue matrices circulating in the building.
I would have more respect for Gibbons if he simply said, “Let me be honest. I was great in Congress because I made one-minute floor speeches about Ronald Reagan and liberal Democrats. But now I have to come up with real ideas and all I have is a calculator.”
But I also would have more respect for legislative Democrats if they called a news conference and declared: “Listen, we know Nevadans are hurting. But how much worse will it be if we allowed schools and health care and roads to get worse when we have never funded them properly? We will find a tax package that does not destroy businesses and families but keeps the state intact. And here is what we are looking at ...”
Gibbons is a lost cause. But it is not principled for Democrats to sit down for what they believe in because they are afraid of the political consequences and don’t trust their ability to educate the public.
If ever there were a time to ignore the extremes on both sides, to disregard the blog posters and engage a worried public in an adult conversation about tax truths and consequences, this is the time.
Who in Carson City has had enough of whining and is up to that challenge?
http://democracyrocksinnevada.org provides a convenient way for the unpaid advocate to communicate with state legislators.
Agreed....
Each biennium the two herds gather to choose sides just to see who can make the largest urine spot on the state trees and grounds of the Capital. And then go back home to brag about their urine spot being the biggest there - with little or nothing constructive accomplished except a bunch of useless pissing and moaning.....
There are many who have spent countless hours emailing the gang of 63 and speaking at the "Community Conversations" held trying to make some inroads into some common sense government.
Legislators simply don't listen to what we the taxpayers have to say.
It is my belief that they think we are all too simple minded to understand.
But, they sure don't think we are too simple minded to vote them in, do they?
I recently emailed the entire gang of 63 - regarding an issue I felt was important, and to share my views. Guess what? Out of the entire gang of 63 I received only one response. Out of the 63, approx 10 of them were deleted without being read (that read receipt thingy is pretty nice to use sometimes).
So much for them paying any attention to the voters after they are voted in to office.
The only people who get any consideration are those who can afford to spend some time in Carson City during the legislature and get in their faces. That group does not include the normal everyday Joe or Jane who has to work to make a living.
I've lived here for nearly two decades and see the same bunch of nothing happen in Carson City every two years. They are all so worried about getting back in office that no one has had the backbone to finally create a broad based revenue structure.
I can't control what they do once they get in office, but I will do my best to make sure those who don't take action this time will not get to spend another day in Carson City after the next election.
Here is Buckley's plan:
www.i_am_hiding_under_a_rock.com
Why doesn't anyone in Carson City talk about the "white elephant" in the room- - -the ILLEGAL aliens! Nationwide impact numbers follow. Has our Legislature studied the impact to Nevada?
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year. http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2. 2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscale...
3. 2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscale...
4. 12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0...
5. 17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0...
6. 6. 3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0...
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0...
8. 90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/2...
9. 200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0...
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0...
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroine and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute, "estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period." http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/p...
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States ".
http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml
The total cost is a whopping $338.3 BILLION A YEAR
Data from: http://www.johnrocker.net/zhl_truecost.h...
I believe the problem is that the most important thing on these peoples minds is keeping their jobs and raising money for their campaigns. Doing Nevada's work is secondary. They are afraid to offend their contributors. Maybe term limitations, public funding, I don't know the answer, but our government isn't working.
Thanks for that post Emmo. Truly enlightening.
It makes me wonder why then does the republican majority encourage allowing the illegal immigrants to come here to work the jobs that lazy Americans won't when the result is the welfare state they despise as a party. I understand being pro-business (low labor costs), but the cost to society and all taxpayers is much more to bear.
Ummmm.... Payrolldept, which Republican majority are you talking about? The one in the Nevada Senate... oh, wait, the Dems are in the majority there. The one in the Assembly? Again, a huge Dem majority. Maybe you mean the Republican majority in the House or Senate on the federal level. Shoot, got me again... Dems in charge. The Democrats are in the majority everywhere. I have no clue what you're talking about.