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By J. Patrick Coolican (contact) 
, David McGrath Schwartz, Michael Mishak
Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
Gov. Jim Gibbons answers questions from reporters after delivering his State of the State speech in the Capitol building in Carson City Monday, Feb., 8, 2010.
Reader poll
State of the State
Viewing video requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player
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
- Hundreds rally to protest governor’s proposed budget cuts (2-9-2010)
- Governor sounds like the GOP candidate he is, observers say (2-9-2010)
- The bleeding of education: Gibbons faults ‘whining’ about school funding (2-9-2010)
- Cuts would dramatically shrink Nevada safety net (2-9-2010)
- Gibbons: No battle expected over taxes during special session (2-8-10)
- 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
Steven Horsford
Nevada Democrats, already facing a daunting electoral landscape this year, are in danger of losing their base, including organized labor.
Some members of the liberal wing of the Nevada Democratic Party, including the heads of the teachers union and the powerful Culinary Union, are attacking what they regard as the party’s timidity in the face of massive budget cuts proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons.
The state faces a short-term deficit of more than $881 million because of the continued recession and a spiking demand for services from the growing ranks of the poor.
Some liberal leaders think Nevada Democrats are adrift and have not offered a strong alternative to Gibbons, the Reno Republican who told educators in his State of the State address to “stop whining” about education funding in a state with one of the lowest per-pupil expenditures in the nation.
State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, in the Democratic response to Gibbons, said new taxes are not on the table to prevent the next round of cuts. He said the state needs a fairer, more stable, more robust tax structure, but not just yet. Democrats have made similar promises for years.
D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary, is close to Horsford because of the senator’s day job as head of the Culinary Training Academy. Still, Taylor took issue with the Democrats’ approach.
“I don’t understand how they expect people to be excited about their opinions until they offer a different policy and vision than the governor and the Republicans,” said Taylor, whose union and its 50,000-plus members are a must-have for Nevada Democrats.
“I think the Democrats in this state need to decide what they stand for. They have to stand for something and they have to pay for it if they want something different,” Taylor said, referring to new taxes.
Lynn Warne, president of 30,000-member teachers union, said her members are underpaid as it is and won’t accede to a pay cut, telling legislators to show “leadership and courage” and raise taxes.
Erin Neff, head of the liberal advocacy group Progress Now Nevada, pointedly didn’t reply to Gibbons’ address. Instead, she attacked Horsford’s response.
She said the base is upset with Democratic leadership.
“I don’t see a strong base right now,” she said. “There’s no energy, no candidates that evoke an energetic response, and this should be a wake-up call on all levels.”
She said Democrats should go with a simple message: “Tax mining, tax Wal-Mart.”
Horsford is on record supporting broad-based tax reform, but said a special session with just two weeks to prepare is not the time to do it. “While I respect very much my friends in the labor community, my focus and that of my colleagues in the Legislature is to address the budget crisis at hand,” he said.
“If those in the labor community agree we need broad-based tax reform, including full participation from banks and other big corporations, I welcome their help building awareness and momentum,” he added.
The Democrats’ play for centrist voters, while in other years a pragmatic strategy, could backfire badly if it alienates their base.
“I wouldn’t be running to the center,” said Michael McDonald, an expert in voter behavior at George Mason University and the Brookings Institution. “You don’t want to be the party of teachers while cutting teacher salaries.”
Off-year elections, meaning an election without a presidential race, tend to be lower-turnout affairs, with fewer moderate and undecided voters. These off-year elections are about motivating the party base, rather than appealing to swing voters, who are less likely to show up.
Indications point to a highly motivated Republican Party, driven by antipathy toward President Barack Obama and Sen. Harry Reid, who is up for re-election, and the energy and excitement of the Tea Party movement, as evidenced by the victory of Scott Brown in the Massachusetts special election.
If Democrats cannot counter this energy by offering an alternative to the Republican agenda of cutting government at all levels, they face the prospect of losing big.
“You absolutely need your base in a midterm election,” said Thomas Schaller, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and writer for the political Web site, fivethirtyeight.com.
It’s not clear, however, that there’s any easy fix for Democrats.
Democrats fear a tax increase would further hurt an already fragile economy. They also note that they do not have the votes to override a Gibbons veto of a tax package — they would be making a tough, but ultimately pointless vote.
Finally, it’s not clear they can even advance a tax package during a special session if Gibbons, who has the constitutional power to set the agenda for special sessions, specifically forbids it.
Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, one of the Legislature’s most liberal members and a top lieutenant to Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, said the philosophical debate about taxes is a worthy one, but complaining about Democrats “is ignoring the political reality.”
“They have to understand the process,” she said of critics. “If there’s no path to two-thirds (to override a Gibbons veto) — and there is no path to two-thirds — you can cry all you want about Democrats not being bolder. You can scream and stamp your feet or work within the political structure to get somewhere.”
Buckley and Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera have joined Horsford in saying there’s “no appetite” for a tax increase. Democratic leaders fear their candidates will have the tax albatross, long deadly in Nevada politics, hung around their necks.
(Even without a new tax increase, however, Democrats will have to defend taxes — the Legislature, as Gibbons forcefully reminded voters Monday, already raised taxes last year, as many campaign mailers this year will no doubt attest.)
Raising taxes could further alienate unaffiliated voters, who have leaned toward the Republican column in the past year as the economy has muddled along.
Danny Thompson, head of the Nevada AFL-CIO, summed up the problem: “If you could sit everybody down and explain the whole thing and explain what’s broken with our tax structure, we could get the support to fix it,” he said.
As Thompson knows, in politics the side that is explaining is the side that is usually losing. “At the end of the day, I don’t know what you do,” he said.
Dan Hart, a Democratic political consultant to the teachers, said Democrats have erred in not seeing that politics have changed in Nevada, which is home to 83,000 more Democrats than Republicans.
“If you say, ‘We’re going to cut teacher pay and lay off many of them. Or, we’re going to make these larger corporations pay their fair share,’ the public is wildly supportive of the second option,” he said.
Democrats are phonies.
Otherwise, they would be requiring the Democrats who are running, like Reid, Jr to sign a pledge to increase taxes by one or two or three or four or five or six billion in the next regular session in 2011.
That will never happen.
Republicans try to get their candidates to sign a no-tax increase pledge.
Democrats instead hide or lie about their desire to increase taxes by the billions.
Democrats are phonies including the ones in the street.
They do not ask their leaders to stand up, have courage and tell the public that billions in new taxes are needed (according to the libs).
The unions cry to take money from people in Nevada already hurting from this economy so their members don't have to cut back.
Isn't this the same thing we have heard all year from Washington DC.? Taking car companies from bond holders and giving them to the unions? Raising taxes on everyone so public employees raises could be maintained? Trying to pass a health care bill that taxed ordinary Americans but exempting health plans from unions?
It's time to face reality. Spending cuts are coming and NO NEW TAXES is not a promise to be broken. Even at Wal Mart.
""Democrats should go with a simple message: tax Wal-Mart."
Liberal wing of the Nevada Democratic Party, including the heads of the teachers union and the powerful Culinary Union, are attacking what they regard as the party's timidity in the face of massive budget cuts proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons.""
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It is clear who is running Nevada it the UNIONs
Worried about their need to salary and beneifit increases they want to tax Walmart were all the unemployeed shop raising their cost
Nevada has no leadership. What we have is a disaster. We have elected politicians on both sides so worried about their own reelection potential they won't commit. It is obvious Gov Gibbons is not plotting his strategy-he couldn't come up with these disingenius ideas himself, as destructive as they are-these cuts are petty. cruel and inhumane. Cut eyeglasses and dentures? Adult diapers? where do they get these ideas?
anything but hold business and industry accountable for their fair share -
When will citizens get smart and quit pointing fingers at one another??
Bring on the unelected GOONS
What is the problem with the legislature changing the law and allowing the state to incur debt to get us through this mess and until politicians have the bells to enact taxes? Certainly, until we elect a competent governor --
Liberals, Progressives ,Parents, students and others who are complaining about the cuts need to sign up to make up the difference this is the only fair way of raising funds to meet the shortfall.
The other way would be to put a 25% Tax on UNION organizations income. This way the UNIONS can do their Part for a change.
The feds are already putting us deep in debt, we don't need the state doing it too.
"Horsford is on record supporting broad-based tax reform, but said a special session with just two weeks to prepare is not the time to do it."
And when is the time to do it? Never is the time to do it here.
I tried being a Democrat for a while, but I will never again be either a Republican or Democrat. The Democrats think teachers have nowhere to go politically, and will never vote for Republicans. If that were true, this dingbat wouldn't be governor. If Democrats can't support their own constituency (with exceptions I won't name here - but teachers are not one of those exceptions) then don't be surprised when you lose your seats. At least the Republicans are honest instead of hypocrites. But I will vote for third party as much as possible.
S Horsford, where were you during the last regular session? Why didn't you take care of it then?
According to Horsford, students are "smart enough," but the schools are failing them. Horsford has no respect for teachers. He's from the school of entitlement, where students have no responsibility for themselves, and teachers should do everything but wipe their butts. There is apparently no difference in student aptitude in Horsford's world - everybody's a genius! - and if students watch video games instead of doing homework, and laugh at how the government spends money on them even though they do nothing, that's because "the schools" are "failing" them.
Neff: 'She said Democrats should go with a simple message: "Tax mining, tax Wal-Mart." ' Maybe the Democrats should think about persuading Neff to be a leader in their party. At least she has some common sense going on.
I don't know if any of you are familiar with the situation we are having with the taxes that are being paid by the mining companies here in Nevada. The mining companies, which most of their corporate offices are based in foreign countries, are paying 1.5% tax on the precious ore they are taking out of our states ground. Our state has been letting this go on forever. Within the last few months our state has been wanting to raise that tax to 5% so we can finally generate and impose a fair tax on these mining companies who are making billions on the precious ore they are extracting and only paying thousands in taxes. This would help our State in a time that layoffs could be taking place. Harry Reid was asked a few months back if he could help in rewriting our State Constitution to make this mining tax hike legal. Despite the fact that bringing more money in through mining taxes which would save our state from having to layoff any State, County, or City employees, instead, of Harry Reid putting an effort into changing our States Constitution he told the public that he was too busy and this would have to wait until after the coming November elections. Harry are you telling us that these employees jobs are not important enough to start work on this immediately? You are up for re-election this November and your constituents are not worth saving? What is more important than not putting an effort into saving the peoples jobs who voted for you? When you were looking for re-election your last go round and needed votes did you hear your citizens tell YOU they were to busy and didn't have time? Something is very wrong here. I wonder how much these mining companies are donating to the re-elect Harry Reid fund. Our citizens do not need layoffs!!!!
So now we have others in our State who are trying to change our Constitution so the mining taxes can be changed, and of course the mining companies are taking our state to court and suing
us. Harry, do you think there is anything YOU could do?
Harry Reid is selfish and is bad for Nevada!
I always hear the usual scare tactic from the right that raising taxes on Walmart will force them to raise their prices. This is not true. If that were the case, the price we pay at these stores would be significantly less than they are in California, Arizona or Utah, where they have corporate income taxes, but they're not. Maybe we're subsidizing lower prices for those states with our "business friendly" tax structure.
My wife, kids and I are moving to LV this summer, so I want to start weighing in on these debates.
In response to the mining companies and "fair tax". How high do taxes have to get before they are "fair"? While 5% was stated, why stop there?
One reason to keep taxes as low as possible is that you want those companies to keep employment going strong in the state.
Corporate offices in foreign lands happen for one reason - taxes. Many companies in WI, where I'm at right now, move out of or don't even bother moving to WI because of the current Gov. Doyle being so opposed to tax incentives to give businesses a reason to stay or move here.
There has to be a balance. While in the short-term, tax hike increase money to the government, as the expenses rise over a longer period of time, the tax-hikes stifle growth and hurt employment.
Out of control spending does the same thing. This can be proven by what happened in the years of 2000 to 2008. While Bush did a lot right in cutting taxes across the board (I don't make alot and even got a tax cut), and the economy grew 52 months in a row, the problem began 2006 when spending got stupid and when Fannie Mae and Freddie make (A government run private company which never works), we have been unable to recover because of too much spending.
If we have to tighten our belts and wallets, then what's wrongs with government cutting back a percentage point or two?
I won't type so much next time, sry
Buncha folks on these comment sites are advocating a 5% state income tax as a way to help balance the budget... but ... suggest an across the board 5% pay cut for state employees and these same folks 'go off the deep end'!
Republicans are phonies they are backing McCain for re-election in AZ, when the conservative candidate is J D Hayworth. Apparently, a number of Hayworth supporters are going to protests Palin's visit to Searchlight, should get interesting. Lowden is already distancing herself from the Tea Party nutbars.
Speaking of taxes, I distinctly remember CCSD enrollment numbers being down from the previous year. There was a law that didn't allow the state to lower the amount they distributed to CCSD until next year. The CCSD was receiving a huge chunk of funding, what happen to that money? Why couldn't it be used this year to help with this problem?
Gems, here are a few counterpoints.
The state of Nevada has a constitutionally mandated cap on net proceeds from minerals of 5%. Obviously the framers of the state constitution thought this was a fair price. Unfortunately, mining lobbyists and the legislators who accepts funds from them (on both sides of the aisle) have granted the mining companies exorbinant deductions on their proceeds.
After all is said and done, and the mining companies write off nearly every expense they have, the industry pays an effective NPOM of 0.5%. These deductions are statutory and reserved for the mining industry.
There are several Nevada mines that report hundreds of millions of dollars in proceeds from the sale of minerals that pay no NPOM tax whatsoever, due to these statutory deductions. This is frankly unfair and evidence of the undue influence of the mining industry in the state.
Of course there has to be a balance in taxation. However, the mining industry cannot just simply move to a different state to take advantage of a different workforce. The natural resources of Nevada are not located in Wyoming, or North Dakota. These valuable resources are being taken from the citizens of the state and the mining industry has taken advantage of deductions to pay little to nothing to support our state's activities and interests.
There are differing opinions as to how to deal with this. There is a group proposing a change to the state constitution. A simpler fix would be to repeal most of the statutory deductions.
These companies earn billions of dollars in profit from our natural resources and have for decades. Repealing statutory deductions would increase the entire industry's tax bill by 150 million annually.
The article has those stupid comments from union presidents that tell the governor to be brave and stand up to tax payers and raise taxes.
Be brave legislators and stand up to the unions! I love how the public servants have become the masters of the public.
When Nevadans no longer equate the word "taxes" with the "f" word, it will become a genuine state of the union.
To add to edgewise's response to GemsofNirvana...I read somewhere that the mining industry only employs (directly, not this indirect nonsense) 14,000 people. They get preferential treatment, and even the gaming industry leaders are calling it unfair (see Steve Wynn's interview on Jon Ralston's show).
Regarding the rest of this article...for what it's worth, my opinion is that these unions are killing the state. Look at the firefighter pay. Look at the teacher's union opposing changes that would make NV eligible for the Federal "Race to the Top" funds. We need dramatic changes, and the unions won't allow it. Politicians on both sides are on the take from these groups, so nothing changes. Meanwhile, we continue to be ranked near the bottom in education and other things that matter. We can't expect any improvements if we continue to do the same thing...isn't that the definition of insanity? Throwing more money at the problem is not going to fix things by itself. It's just that much more available to be wasted. Look at the % of funds applied to education actually goes towards instruction/staff. A joke. Where is the rest of the money? There's fat to be trimmed without affecting the teachers. The governor and other politicians assume the only solution is the hatchet based, across the board cuts, instead of digging into the details and finding the unnecessary waste.
There are too many leaders of these special interest groups that are corrupt and dishonest. Too bad, because I feel that most of the members are honest, reasonable people.
All these liberal femocrats want to do is propagate social-theft (taxation) upon the responsible producers of society to fund the breeding of social-parasites while promoting aberrant sexual behaviors as norms.
How does one protect themselves from such evils?
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Comment removed by moderator. Contained an advertisement.
MAKE THE BUDGET CUTS....IF POSITIONS ARE LOST THEN SO BE IT...THEY (GOVERNMENTS IN NEVADA) NEED TO LIVE BY A BUDGET AND LEARN TO BALANCE THAT BUDGET TO KEEP SPENDING WITHIN REASON..
CUT SOCIAL PROGRAM GIVE-AWAYS...SEND CRITICALLY ILL ILLEGALS BACK TO THEIR COUNTRY FOR TREATMENT AND STOP PAYING FOR THEIR CARE...
CUT BACK THE GOVERNMENT WORK FORCE....IT HAS TO BE DONE...
STOP SPENDING BIG BUCKS LIKE IT IS NOTHING...
When it comes to raising taxes so that Nevada looks alot more like California I say: NO,NO,NO,NO,NO,NO,NO,NO,NO,NO,NO,NO,NO,NO, And no again!!!!!
I say tax unions. Union members income should be taxed 20% above and beyond the normal income taxes. That would fix the budget. These guys apparently want taxes raised badly so I doubt they will complain if we tax them.
Serg I've been screaming for years watching my friends lose their homes while the illegals are doing their work. These people could not care, the businesses could not care, law enforcement could not care. When it effects more people, some might at that point care. Our citizens are being programed and becoming lazy. They don't care and they won't do anything about it. Some people believe this is proper to allow illegals to take work away from citizens. I hear "They've got families to feed too." Even though they aren't our responsibility as a country our citizens are being programed to think it is.
Instead of the immigrant obeying our immigration laws and assimilating to our way of life, we are adjusting to their breaking of our federal laws and are assimilating to what they are doing. Sen. Reid, Shelley Berkley are leaving the citizens rights behind and voting to give citizenship to federal law breakers. Instead of upholding the laws they are allowing these people to get away with breaking federal laws. Who is there left to protect the law abiding citizens?
Goingbust is onto something. Taxes on union dues and all payroll taxes should be shifted off of employers and placed on the unions since they believe the union workers are theirs.
Unfortunately, immediate removal of illegal aliens from Clark County would result in economic devastation particularly during a census year when federal dollars issued to the state are based upon everyone's head being counted -- kind of reminiscent to that Acorn group during election season huh?
: {
fremmas,
Immigrants may come but you can't always tell by looking at them if they are legal or not. I agree one hundred percent that illegal immigration has caused a lot of damage to the country but our tax system is also inflicting damage. Legal workers (not US citizens) are being given thousands of dollars in refunds when they didn't even pay. The country can regain billions if we look into simple fixes. We also need to determine what is given to a citizen as opposed to a non citizen. I am referring to welfare programs. Take away the free incentives that are given to non us citizens.
There needs to be an incentive for being American other than paying for the living expenses of others.
Google Aaron Russo's documentary "Freedom to Fascism". One of his last documetaries before he passed. There is no law stating that any person making a living wage is to pay federal income taxes.It was set up for a business that sells a product and makes a profit on that product, that profit is to be taxed. Since big business has a deduction for everything they do not pay federal income tax. It is then up to the people, where there is no law stating so, to pay federal income tax or our government would have to declare bancruptcy. The way I've read it we are just about there now anyway.
The simple fact is that we don't have enough money to go around. We've written obligations that our finances can't support. A hierarchy of need has to be established and the budget must be cut according to that stratification. Those that are defenseless and disabled such as the very young and the very old should top the list. Those that have the capability to be self-supporting should be made to do so. If you are able to do some type of productive work should be required to do so as a condition of receiving benefits.
Whenever you hear a politician say, "We need to diversify our tax base," you should immediately recognize this as Politicospeak for "We need an income tax."
To paraphrase a quote by Benjamin Franklin, "Poverty shouldn't be comfortable."
Nevada has the 25th best funded government in the nation (in 2008). Government already has its "fair share" a meaningless term
What they want is to abuse the productive sector of Nevada's economy to fund their own special interests. This is greed in the name of public "service"
We need a government that funds what works - nothing more. We need a government that is fiscally responsible and efficient - not one that funds the latest fad or crusade.
Patrick have you figured out how to cut the CCSD budget problem from yesterday? Still no answer from you.
The Tea Party is the savior of public conservatism in this century. It is the only party that advocates a 50% reduction of government, at all levels, with the ultimate goal of having only a 25% sized government in force, much like the Constitutional government we started out with at the country's founding.
I don't think either extreme works.
You can't cut taxes and function as a government and you can't tax the citizens into oblivion.
Why can't the politicians meet in the middle and work this out?
I know the answer....... they only care about reelection and not the citizens.
Patrick--
Can you identify which government program(s)if any in Nevada that you consider effective and that should be continued in their current form without modification?
(This is a serious question)
Simple solution, imprisonment for all the liberals for their continued lying, cheating, and stealing our money to pay for their social programs and for supporting illegal immigrants.
Any other suggestion or idea is merely another lie being told without any intentions of seeing it through. We're sick and tired of having to work excessive hours to pay for your voting pool, we're done. It's about time your party is ousted and replaced with another party who works for Americans and does what they say are going to do for us, America first.
Where are the dems? Pony up boys and girls.
THE COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN NEVADA ALREADY HAS ONLY A 4% GRADUATION RATE.
AFTER SEEING THAT WHILE APPLYING FOR STUDENT LOANS I CHANGED MY MIND AND I'M GOING TO SCHOOL IN ANOTHER STATE.
NEVADA: Harry Reid's Disney World. OMG r-u folks going to re-elect this buffoon? Do you folks want him and Pelosi to fudge-up the rest of the U.S. the way they have done your states? Just in case you missed it, which I am sure the gullible Nevada public has, the "Canadian Premier Flys to U.S. for Heart Surgery, see http://www.healthreformscam.com/category......
The 59-year-old Conservative needed health care which was not timely available in Canada.
WAKE UP FOOLS
Rizzo1970 -- "THE COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN NEVADA ALREADY HAS ONLY A 4% GRADUATION RATE." isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's not all that selective on who it takes in, so unless it lowers its standards for graduating it may be reasonable for it's graduation rate to be so low. You might be better off taking a serious look at the program you want to pursue at multiple schools and qualitatively comparing those programs as best you can, as well as the placement rates.
Hey Serg what about each of the 3 towers in NY that day fell at near free fall speed. Molten metal was found under each tower 30 days after they fell. Nano thermite particles were found in the dust that fell around the world trade centers. There was never any investigation into the events that took place before, during or after 9/11.Put options were put on the Airline Cos. stock before 9/11 and millions were made on them. I could go on and on...
Ha Ha Ha. "Serge" writes with a brogue, even. Barack The Kenyan Marxist must be happy knowing he has big fans (and voters) out here in Libertarianville. Ha. Ha.
If the legislative democrats of this state continue to capitulate to Jim Gibbons, if they refuse to grow spines and stand in defense of their constituents, then they should lose their base.
Gibbons is attempting to rape the state workers again, and we have been patiently waiting for our legislators to stand up to him. You are NOT listening to us; NOT defending us and NOT acting in OUR interests. Continue down this path and YOU WILL NOT GET RE-ELECTED!