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StumbleGibbons unsure about accepting $162 million in federal money
Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010 | 1:02 p.m.
Gov. Jim Gibbons
CARSON CITY -- Gov. Jim Gibbons isn't sure whether he will accept $162 million in federal money to hire school teachers and supply funds to the Medicaid program.
Gibbons said he first wants to see the strings attached to the law signed this week by President Obama. It would protect an estimated 1,400 teacher jobs in Nevada.
The governor has to approve accepting the money pushed through Congress by Democrats.
Gibbons said, however, the details in the bill are being studied.
Gibbons complained that the federal government is making decisions on Nevada's school system. For instance, he said the Eureka County School District might need books or computers but will be required to use the funds for teachers.
"We have to study the requirements for taking that money," Gibbons said. "The requirements by the federal government oftentimes put us in a more difficult position."
He said the state might get the $82 million for education "but in some ways you have to continue to spend state money to keep getting that money and oftentimes we don't have the matching dollars."
"I'm prepared to say 'Thank you' and I'm prepared to say 'Thank you, but no thank you,'" Gibbons said.
The state, under the federal legislation, would get $79 million for the Medicaid program, which provides medical care for the needy.
Gibbons press secretary Daniel Burns said it was disappointing for the federal government to offer money to states and not let states decide how to spend it.
"Rhode Island, Florida, Mississippi and Nevada have different educational needs and to say that all this money can only be spent on teachers when a school district may need books or buses or supplies for the classroom ... That's part of the strings attached," he said.
Republicans Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Dean Heller opposed the congressional bill, saying it wouldn't create jobs in private business or spur the economy.
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Sharron The-Gift-Who-Keeps-On-Giving Mangle now claims that the money is Democratic "money laundering" i.e., a tactic whereby the teachers will fork it over to the Dems this fall for election campaigns.
Notwithstanding that money laundering is a CRIME, and this is the result of a LAW.
If he doesn't, it will show him for the cretin he is.
This is the reason why he wasn't reelected.
He wants the money to go to what ever he decides and to heck with the teachers and medicaid this also the reason medicaid is going broke because the money gets intercepted.
Don't jump to conclusions...he is right for once..Obama and crew always put strings attached..which means we will pay MORE than what we will get..read the fine print as they always say!!! If its from Obama - REALLY READ THE FINE PRINT!
Hey Big Jim,
Everyone in the State is getting ready to say, "Thank you, but no thank you" to you too! Oh, the irony.
Can we put off this decision until after inauguration? Like all the other decisions.
"Rhode Island, Florida, Mississippi and Nevada have different educational needs and to say that all this money can only be spent on teachers when a school district may need books or buses or supplies for the classroom ... That's part of the strings attached," he said.
Uh, looking gift horse in mouth equals 'yeah great, teachers, just what we needed. We need a new wing off the library!'
Forty how many in the 7th grade?
First do no harm, Dr. Death!
He is doing what he thinks is right and he knows after January it will not matter to him what happens. It will be of little concern what happens to our children, his only concern will be his retirement checks. ENDURE!!!!!!!
If its to good to be true its a scam.
Look at the mortgage meltdown.
Nobody gives money away w\o strings attach.
Good...he should analyze it thoroughly...the Feds think we will do anything for money...what may seem like common 'strings attached' can turn into menacing tentacles...
Take solace, Guv, if they can do it South Carolina it can be done here:
Securing jobless benefits for more than 17,000 out-of-work South Carolinians. NYT:
The federal Department of Labor announced Tuesday that South Carolina had officially cleared its approval process and that the stimulus money was being released immediately.
The reversal by Mr. Sanford attracted virtually no notice, but it made South Carolina the 33rd state in the country to expand jobless benefits to qualify for its full share of stimulus money under the program, according to the National Employment Law Project, a liberal advocacy group.
Once again Congress passes a bill that robs money from future generations (more debt) to help state governments pay their bills today. If you have children, how can you accept this money and sleep at night knowing their standard of living with be but a fraction of our standard of living.
If states can't pay their bills or meet obligations like teacher salaries, they need to cut spending. Instead they beg the federal government to bail them out and Gibbons is right, there will be major strings attached. All this bill did was delay the pain for another year. This house of cards is soon to come crashing down and there will be mass teacher, firemen, policemen, and state worker layoffs. Better to refuse the money and make the tough choices now.
Even though their favorite word is "NO", the current GOP in Congress has spoken loudly in its votes this term. Based on them:
Whom do Republicans dislike?
children, teachers, firemen, cops, paramedics, nurses, miners, auto workers, scientists, students needing Pell Grants, working poor unable to get/afford health insurance, veterans, minorities, lawyers who don't represent corporations, unemployed and poor people in general....and on and on.
Whom do they really like?
Hedge fund managers, bankers, corporate CEOs and anyone who golfs regularly at a country club.
All this "sudden" GOP/Tea Party obsession with deficits is somewhat ironic, especially when it concerns health care costs.
The largest single "driver program" of cost increases is Medicare.
Exactly one year ago, during the month of August, flocks of Tea Partiers and Republicans hijacked town hall meetings to loudly protest:
Democratic efforts under way to address Medicare costs as an integral part of health care reform.
So those "Hands Off My Medicare" and "Don't Pull the Plug on Granny" and "Rationing" and "No Socialized Medecine" voices are now suddenly so concerned about health care costs?
I think I smell a big rat in their tea bags. Not the only one either.
This guy is amazing. Who voted for him in the first place?
He cares nothing about Nevada, nothing about Nevada children, nothing about state workers, or any of us. He only cares about jetting around with his girlfriends & cheating on his wife.
The bill has a hiddened provision calling for cameras to be installed in steak house parking garages, that's why govo is against it. Also, as a congressman Gibbons voted vote medicare part D that will add a trillion dollars to the budget deficit. What's changed govo?
dnegri
You summed it up nicely except the rat urinated on the tea bag and it isn't as palatable as it once was.
@ Dnegri You also forgot to mention it was our Republican friends who passed Medicare Plan D.
The strings attached is actually funding education- Which Nevada, with its strong conservative base, is categorically hostile towards. It's not about money. It's that they are fundamentally anti-education (ie their constant derision of "elitism" and "arrogance" of the educated and their embrace of dopes like Bush, Palin, Quayle, et al.)
I, for the life of me, cannot understand the attitude of many people in this country who just think that all of the financial problems are going to just go away. We have created a situation that unless hard choices are made will destroy this country as we know it to be. All of our governing entities have been completely out of control on spending and the one thing they need is to be held accountable. Cuts need to be made and accepting rescue plans just prolongs the inevitable. Even here in the conservative state of Texas we are reading on a daily basis about cities and counties that are over budget and are looking for ways to raise funds. In our paper this morning was a great statement from a concerned citizen: "Your excuse is the county is growing and needs more services, but more people means more money(taxes) and it seems it is never enough". This statement really put it in a nutshell. It will never be enough and we had better realize that. These cities, states, and the federal government need to be purged to a point that they return to a normal level of operation. We do it in our lives, why can't they?
While the Sun has again sensationalized the headline, I understand the governor's hesitation. This was put together by the unions and BO to garner votes in November. Plain and simple. While I strongly believe that all teachers are underpaid, for they are teaching our children, different districts and regions have different needs. We NEED books. We NEED food programs for underserved kids who won't eat over an entire weekend because there isn't food or supervision at home (you'd be amazed at how many). And we NEED better programs for our children to keep them busy, stay off drugs and alcohol and out of gangs. Our needs are uniquely different than other districts, don't shoehorn us into having to use for something specific.
Gibbons is the biggest A**H*** to ever sit in the governor's office. The reason he lost the primary is because over and over again he demonstrated in word and deed that he didn't care about Nevada or Nevadans. He still doesn't. I wonder what Sandoval's position on this issue is?
The question remains: how will he know what is really in the material when he doesn't know how to read?
A trillion for a healthcare program that even covers people with pre-existing conditions?? might be worth it,?? but a trillion that essentially sent money to the drug companies, not worth it...
Angle's hubbie can save the taxpayer's some money by sending back his FEDERAL PENSION CHECK FROM THE BLM.
How can you be mad at Gibbons for looking over the offer before accepting/denying it? If you do, you are crazy!!! You are probally theones that bought a house you couldn't afford, but you signed the papper work and didn't read that u had an arm or ballon payment.
This money is like taking it from the maffia I'm guessing. Be nice to read the real offer.
Big print give-it, small print take-it away!
I voted for him... not this time. He's a decent, caring man. The whole economy thing's not his fault. Didn't have the skills needed to be CEO of our State, but has stayed true to his beliefs and convictions, which is more than you can say for a lot of 'em.
What a Moron. Glad I dont live in Nevada!
"Once again Congress passes a bill that robs money from future generations (more debt) to help state governments pay their bills today."
As Joe Wilson would say: YOU LIE.
The funding for this bill was completely offset, which means it doesn't add a dime to the debt.
Gibbons is mad the money has to be spent on teachers, a contituency he hates.
He'd rather the funds come with no strings so he could use it as a private slush fund.
All you Obama/Dem bashers are just a smart as our lame duck gov.
Folks, this is EXACTLY WHY Nevada gets so little in Federal Funds. Our Republican leadership is too stupid to figure out how to take it!! Outside of Palin, Gibbons is the worst governor EVER! Palin is only worse because she is a quitter.
smartone618...yes a decent man, charged with molesting a cocktail waitress and cheating on his wife...yes a decent man...in bizarro world!
Wow, cretin is right. A cretin without a conscience.
Hey GYM...
TAKE THE DOUGH, YOU NINNY!!!
I know it's hard...you guys have NOOO practical use for the word, WE GET THAT, but...
Try it with me once;
Y
E
S
!!!
Atta boy, Gym...sounded just like Frankenstein, but you DID IT!!!
The Obama, Reid, Pelosi Federal government is out of control. They are just trying to gain control of the States for their political agenda.
The teachers Unions contribute 93% of their money to the Democrats Need we say any more. Oh yes, to pay for this bill, the Democrats are taking 14 Billion dollars from the Food Stamp Program to pay for it.
This is the new "Food Stamps for Teachers Program".
"Gibbons is mad the money has to be spent on teachers... "
Edgewise has it right. These fanatical wingers are so hung up with their anti-teacher, anti-science, anti-gub'mint ideology that they don't even care about the kids. And thanks, dnegri, for pointing out just who it is the GOP blames and demonizes:
...children, teachers, firemen, cops, paramedics, nurses, miners, auto workers, scientists, students needing Pell Grants, working poor unable to get/afford health insurance, veterans, minorities, lawyers who don't represent corporations, unemployed and poor people in general....and on and on.
These GOPers wont stop until the entire middle class has a Walmart job.
The Republicans can't make up their minds. They claim to stand up for working class Americans, but of course not what they call money-grubbing, unionized teachers. Teachers are all of a sudden an evil "interest group," secretly plotting with the Democrats.
The politics of fear, division, myth, and hate.
Gibbons, just another talking head with no brain.
Nut Job!!!!
Republicans say little of substance, but their votes speak loudly. From this term of Congress alone...
Whom do Republicans dislike?
children, teachers, firemen, cops, paramedics, nurses, miners, auto workers, homosexuals, working women, scientists, students needing Pell Grants, working poor unable to get/afford health insurance, veterans, minorities, lawyers who don't represent corporations, unemployed and poor people in general....and on and on.
Whom do they really like?
Hedge fund managers, bankers, corporate CEOs and anyone who golfs regularly at a country club.
Good riddance!! Harry Reid will be next!
Today we see that Governor Gibbons does not prostitute himself for money unlike some sorry characters in the legislative body.
The matching funds would only cause the state debt to rise and fail to produce any sustainable, economic benefits for Nevada. As a footnote, this money offered by the Obama administration would create more debt for the state while benefiting those who work for the government and not the vast majority of the working families.
It is noteworthy to mention that Obama threw in medicare with the offer, putting all the governors in a impossible situation.
That is what community organizers do. Divide people, and create havoc as they themselves, thrive by the chaos they create.
Thanks but no thanks Barack. You can't buy those who have ethics.
We could have had Dina Titus. We are we going to do lay off the few people that have jobs ?
Correction : What are we going to do lay off the few people that have jobs ?
Gibbons and ethics ? reverend you got to be kidding.
Would one of you pea brain teabaggers explain how it is that laying off 1,600 teachers will help our economy?
Just do what the Feds do Jim... take the money, then do something entirely different with it than what you agreed to.
Gibbons and Angle would make a cute couple, just sayin..
Gibbons wants more cocktail waitresses to assault, he could care less about teachers! lol
By NV Policy Research Institute's 2009 estimates, Clark County School District employed one adult for every eight students, while Washoe County School District employed one adult for every 7.2 students, only 1/3 - 1/2 of those are teachers.
Suggesting teachers will be fired is nothing more than an attempt to anger people into thinking that the education of children will suffer if we don't take the money. Getting this money only allows the education establishment to avoid having to make difficult decisions like the rest of us have done in where to make cuts (perhaps the top-heavy staff and administration areas would be a good start).
Even if it were only teachers who were cut and let's say, 1500 were let go, that would raise the teacher to student ratio by just over one child per classroom...in comparison, in 1950 the student-teacher ratio was 27 students per teacher, yet the level of education has not yet improved, despite a cut of 33% of students per teacher since then. This is hardly an earth-shattering change. Haven't most of you been forced to take on additional responsibility due to staff cuts?
This is not the same booming economy we had in the mid-2000's. If school administrtation is forced to make a cut of 7%, then they should count themselves lucky in comparison to other employers in the state who have reached much deeper than 7%, especially when they are reliant upon the tax $$s of those who are still lucky enough to be working in Nevada?
Stop making villians out of the folks who are trying to save our state by saving money.
We don't save anything by not taking the money. We lose 162 million dollars.
If he does not accept the money, he should be impeached!
Okra...none of us know what the requirements and/or stipulations are accepting this latest bail out. It may actually cost the state money in the future to continue or match the funds. I do, however, know that the bailout originates from tax payer money, so it's already costing you, if you're a productive part of society.
NPRI is not a credible source for information. That's like asking the Arabs to conduct a "study" on Israel. Also note that actual student to teacher ratios are absent from the comment above. Sounds better if you leave out the pertinent facts, I guess.
NPRI is not a credible source for information. That's like asking the Arabs to conduct a "study" on Israel. Also note that actual student to teacher ratios are absent from the comment above. Sounds better if you leave out the pertinent facts, I guess.
Even the Department of Education, who estimates that the student-teacher ratio is closer to 12 students per adult employee (and thinks that NV under-reported). This still only raises class ratio by 2 students...still not earth-shattering.
Actual student-teach ratio in NV is approximately 19 students per teacher, according to the DOE. Is that pertinent enough?
I guess I assumed that an "approximate 33% decrease of students" since 1950 from 27:1 would be a simple enough equation, even for a liberal.
gbigs writes: "When we get John Edwards backup here, or BIll Clinton, THEN we can get the women rolling. Impregnate them too maybe."
gbigs, there's a difference between getting some than trying to get some by force. But Gibbons and you have not figured that one out.
There are absolutely NO similarities between Clinton and Gibbons. None! Gibbons can't even muster being a good crook politician.
Colorado: citation needed. And why didn't you post student/teacher info in your original post anyway? And shouldn't you be trolling around your own neck of the woods anyway? I hear the teabags got 'em a mighty fine candidate for Gub'ner. He's got proof that that bicycle riding advocate mayor in Denver is part of the U.N. plot for the One World Order. It's like Reid/Angle deja vu--all over again, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory for the sake of sheer teabag kookiness.
@okra;
"NPRI is not a credible source for information. That's like asking the Arabs to conduct a "study" on Israel."
LMFAO!!!
Pat must've passed out from the heat generated by the NPRI "SUPERCOMPUTER" deep down in the bowels of his "Think Tank"...
IS THERE ANY WAY THAT WE CAN GET THIS NITWIT OUT OF OFFICE NOW?
TEACHERS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PHONY EXCUSES THAT HE'S USING AS TO WHAT TO USE THE MONEY FOR.
GIBBONS MUST HAVE A BUDDY WHO'LL GIVE HIM A KICKBACK IF HE BUYS THE BOOKS FROM HIM.
TEACHERS SPEND MONEY TO SUPPORT THEIR FAMILIES,THEY SPEND MONEY IN STORES WHICH ALLOWS OTHERS TO SUPPORT THEIR FAMILIES WHICH IN TURN HELPS THE NEVADA ECONOMY,BOOKS DON'T DO THAT.
HE'S DOING THIS STRICTLY FOR POLITICAL REASONS BUT HE'S STILL NOT GONNA' BE RE-ELECTED.
IMPEACH THIS FOOL NOW!
Gov. Gibbons took the other stimulus package for highway improvements. He didn't want to put up the stimulus-at-work signs because "the signs were too expensive". When Gov. Gibbons was a congressman, he was always giving stimulus earmarks to his donors. Gov. Gibbons is always talking about "education first... blah, blah, blah". Why is Gov. Gibbons getting all preachy and pious about this stimulus money????
I have to applaud the Congress for paying for this, but when they are taking $12B of this from things that don't have an impact until 2014, you have to think that will likely never stick. It is funny that you can have around $400B in unspent stimulus but you have to jump through hoops to get the money for this bill. That is especially true when the White House economist Larry Summers said that the stimulus needed to be 'timely, targeted and temporary'. How timely is it that we have about half the money left 18 months later. Especially since the previous record for a recession since WWII was 16 months. It would seem that to truly stimulate, you would have wanted that money out in the economy by now.
As for the strings attached, virtually everything from the feds has strings attached and it is, particularly in these times, hard for a state to turn the money down. But it can be like that variable rate mortgage or low intro rate credit card, where it may look good right now but prove to be more trouble than it is worth. There are differences between states and their needs and there should be some flexibility in the spending. If a school system does not need more teachers but needs other things, this bill seems to provide no help.
Heller didn't vote for this money either ; He's a bum too ; he never sticks his neck out except for the rich.
The totalitarian, corrupt, and incompetent radical extremist so-called republicans are more than just the party of "No" and "Obstruction," they are also the party of "Destruction."
RedState's Erick Erickson to GOP/republicans: Stop lying and admit you're the party of No."
There's a bigger fool and liar in the white house.
Don't take the money if they put strings attached to it..Time you people stop looking for the government to bail you A@@ out all the time.
REMEMBER TO TAKE OUT THE TRASH ON NOVEMBER 2
The posting that states, "Once again Congress passes a bill that robs money from future generations (more debt) to help state governments pay their bills today. If you have children, how can you accept this money and sleep at night knowing their standard of living with be but a fraction of our standard of living."
This is just another example of the low information writer we too often see here.
A brief examination of the law would see that the monies needed to provide these essential services,police, fire, teachers, EMT just to name a few, is completely paid for by eliminating a tax loophole giving USA and multi-national corporations doing busines here, an escape to hide from paying their USA taxes by setting up Carribean and offshore addresses and bank accounts.
First, we should be thanking Congress for this legislation, finally stepping up for all Americans.
Second, any job saved is a job that produces taxes and saves us from using unemployment benefits. The employed contributes to the health of the economy. Every time the employed spends money, for every $1.00 they create $1.60 in GDP.
The level of ignorance found in some of these postings, indicate how education is neeeded more in Nevada than ever.
LVtruthbetold,
As a retired teacher, I would say the entire U.S. population has a significant number of people who could benefit from a good public education that focuses on developing critical thinking skills. I think many Americans want someone to tell them what policies mean, how bills are crafted, and what is in the legislation instead of reading it and analyzing it for themselves. As I neared the end of my career, I saw this attitude increase in my students, many of whom didn't want to read the U.S. History or civics textbook.