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Monday, Feb. 8, 2010 | 7:44 p.m.
Reader poll
State of the State
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Gov. Jim Gibbons gave an emergency State of the State address at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8. Video is courtesy KVBC Channel 3.
Sun Archives
- Governor plans emergency address on Nevada budget (2-7-10)
- Governor’s speech will lay out state’s budget problems (2-7-10)
- State budget comes up $800 million short (1-22-10)
- Forecast: Economy will begin to rebound in mid-2011 (1-22-10)
- Gibbons’ no-talk order further divides branches (1-22-10)
- Special session may require help of state Supreme Court (1-10-10)
Sun Coverage
CARSON CITY – At a press conference after his State of the State address, Gov. Jim Gibbons said he expects the special session to last longer than one day but he didn't see a fight over taxes, as occurred in 2009. He said he talked to many Democrats who don’t want to boost taxes in the special session.
Government is going to have to reduce its services, he said. “We’re out of money,” he told reporters.
In one proposed cut, Gibbons said he wants to allow school districts to decide if smaller classes in primary grades should be continued. Gibbons said he would eliminate the state law and allow districts to decide whether to continue the program.
“Despite 20 years of state-imposed student-teacher ratios in first, second and third grade, student achievement in Nevada has not improved,” he said.
To beef up the economy, he wants to establish Nevada as “the recycling capital of the West.” He said technology exists to convert 75 percent of all waste collected into recycled materials for construction and agricultural use.
He said a pilot program will be started in Carson City and will be expanded statewide. This will eliminate landfills “as we know them today and stop Nevada from becoming the dumping ground for California’s trash.”
He said there might be new fees charged to customers, but “we don’t know the exact amount.”
The governor pledged to “protect programs that protect our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.”
He said salary cuts might be on the horizon for 18,000 workers on the state's payroll. Several hundred state workers would be laid off.
The 140-year-old Nevada State Prison in Carson City would be closed under his recommendation, saving some $12 million.
The governor announced a new program called “education gift certificate” in which citizens could donate money to a nonprofit organization that would spend the money only on teachers’ salaries. He hopes that can be tax deductible.
He told the news conference he is still pushing a voucher program for parents to choose where the send their children to school.
“We need to give the choice back to the parents,” he said.
Gibbons also used part of his speech to criticize the 2009 Legislature, which raised taxes by nearly $1 billion. He accused them of making “the wrong call.”
“They (the Legislature) gambled on new taxes and we all lost,” he said.
Yet at his press conference, he said he will work with lawmakers.
He said he is asking teachers to do more with less, but did not get specific.
Gibbons said he recommended a 6 percent cut in pay for state workers last year, but the Legislature imposed a furlough program to save money. That is not working, the governor said.
“New across-the-board salary reductions for state workers may be necessary, but that will be a last resort,” the governor said. He added that he and his staff have already taken 6 percent salary reductions.
And some reductions will be made in health care programs, he said.
But the state will survive “and we will emerge with a state government that is leaner and smarter," he said.
Now is a good time for TASC to prevent this from happening again: http://npri.org/publications/about-that-...
good job posting a link to the organization you work for Patrick....
Yup, that's the answer Mr. P.R. Gibbons.
Lets make government smaller and control spending so we can have more people who are unemployed spending less money in our businesses so our businesses can cut their payrolls and create more unemployment so we can have more people spending less money.
TASC would certianly have prevented the record unemployment our state faces and certianly would have prevented the foreclosure crisis.
Just what we need is another opportunist trying to take advantage of the dilemma our state faces by attempting to impose his personal philosophy on the rest of us.
Nonsense,
Every government spends is a dollar taken from a taxpayer that could have spent it elsewhere in the economy. At the very WORST, less government spending would leave us no worse off.
Given the fact that our budget crisis is the result of a fiscally irresponsible series of budgets: http://npri.org/publications/legislature... it would be a good assumption to realize that we'd be better off with TASC as individuals are better at spending their own money than government.
You seem to assume that taxing has no disadvantages or that money appears out of thin air.
Basically arguing that without the government spending there would be fewer government workers to spend their incomes is a basic economic fallacy.
If the government didn't spend the money, someone else would - ie the people government took the money from in the first place.
Please register to vote THIRD PARTY or NON-PARTISAN
www.Curtis4governor.com
he and his staff got 6% cuts!!!!! what a joke. He just this last year bumped some of his employees pay over 200%. He thinks we are stupid and don't remember. his"fee" increases. another joke. what do you think those are? they are taxes with a different name. Look it up, thats also how the feds raise taxes and no one thinks they did because they called it a fee instead of tax.Hooker, prostitute, same thing, just a different name.