A frank discussion is missing in the governor’s race

By Jon Ralston

Friday, Aug. 6, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

Three notable items that show how sad the state of political affairs is in Nevada, a condition that will have long-term economic repercussions:

No. 1 — Gubernatorial candidates Rory Reid and Brian Sandoval are acting like Jim Gibbons four years ago, lying to voters about the state’s true economic situation and hoping “no new taxes” gets them through the election.

No. 2 — A week ago, lawmakers expressed outrage that Moody’s Analytics was unable to complete a tax study — a study that was not needed in the first place and one whose conclusions could have been foretold by a college economics student.

No. 3 — State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, committing a Kinsleyan gaffe (i.e., telling the truth), told the Sun’s David McGrath Schwartz this week a combination of tax increases and spending cuts will be needed to balance the budget.

So first lawmakers, including Horsford, lament the lack of a tax study, then the majority leader shows it really isn’t needed anyhow and exposes the two gubernatorial contenders as dissemblers with his truth-telling.

And what do we hear from Reid and Sandoval? Hello, darkness, my old friend.

This is like watching an old episode of “The Honeymooners” or “The Flintstones,” except the actors aren’t nearly as colorful and the situation is even more cartoonish. Instead of being sent to the moon by Ralph, the state is being consigned to the Stone Age, courtesy of a lack of courage and vision. That’s the real deadly deficit, not the $3.5 billion you’ve heard so much about.

The more apt historical analogy here is not the “Jim Gibbons vs. Dina Taxes” contest of 2006 but the Bob Miller-Jim Gallaway “race” of 1990. The outcome was never in doubt, but Miller declined publicly to talk about the coming business tax while his chief of staff was having private meetings to decide what form the tax would take.

It is not exactly breaking news that politicians speak more candidly in private than they do in public, especially during campaigns. But when it takes the state Senate majority leader to break the conspiracy of silence and the two candidates for governor can’t bring themselves to be moved to candor, everyone should fear for what will happen in 2011.

The lack of a frank discussion 20 years ago during the campaign led to a legislative nightmare in 1991 and while it produced a business tax, it was the usual Rube Goldberg policy we see biennially. Horsford merely was speaking a manifest truth: If you have a deficit equal to half the last budget in a state that provides only bare-bones services, you can’t raise taxes to bridge the gap or cut your way of the hole. You need to do both. How revelatory.

Lawmakers should never have ordered that tax study but, as usual, they figured it would give them cover when it was done. What? The state has a narrow tax based on gaming and a sales tax on too few goods? Who knew? How can this be?

Here’s a new idea: We need to broaden the tax base.

This pathetic charade has allowed Reid and Sandoval, who continue to claim they will have plans soon (this I have to see), to stonewall as long as they can. Now Horsford, who knows more about the state budget than either of the gubernatorial candidates, has exposed their lies.

And so we have 1990 redux.

Instead of a frank discussion of the state’s economic future from the men running for governor, we are going to get some touchy feely, quality-of-life statement from the Vision Stakeholder Group, which is the touchiest and feeliest name on record, and promises we can do it all — fix education, roads, social services — with no new money. Meanwhile, just as 20 years ago, influential folks, many of them with better intentions than just protecting their interests from taxation, will continue to meet privately to try to present the Gang of 63 and the new governor with a fait accompli come 2011.

Taxes. Cuts. Accountability. Good luck with that.

Perhaps I am wrong and Sandoval and Reid will present visionary plans to balance the budget without raising taxes or fees, putting the state on the road to recovery. I await their ideas with bated breath.

We could make this very simple: If Sandoval and Reid are going to continue to dissemble and insist they will not raise taxes, both should publicly pledge that any breaking of this promise (yes, fees are included) will result in immediate resignation.

If they truly are sincere in these Gibbonsesque pledges, that doesn’t seem too much to ask.