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CATHLEEN ALLISON / SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval talks with Tim Wulf on Saturday at the Washoe County Republican Party headquarters in Reno.
Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Rory Reid
Sun coverage
Sun archives
- Governor’s race tightens as budget debate avoided (10-5-2010)
- Rory Reid’s attack ad twists truth, Brian Sandoval’s words (9-29-2010)
- Rory Reid goes after Brian Sandoval over ties to lobbyists (9-18-2010)
- Bill Clinton stumps for Rory Reid, weighs in on economy (9-15-2010)
- Cutting through rhetoric: Did Brian Sandoval or Rory Reid win on the accuracy front? (8-31-2010)
- Beyond the debate, both gubernatorial candidates would cut education (8-30-2010)
- Rory Reid, Brian Sandoval debate on education reforms (8-29-2010)
- Rory Reid’s budget plan for Nevada: All ax, no new tax (8-27-2010)
- Rory Reid’s budget plan: Cut and consolidate but don’t raise taxes (8-26-2010)
- What will voters hear when Rory Reid, Brian Sandoval debate? (8-25-2010)
- What schedules can say about the candidates for governor (8-15-2010)
- No more Mr. Meek: Reid forces Sandoval’s hand with challenge (8-12-2010)
- Rory Reid draws Brian Sandoval into short debate (8-11-2010)
Damon Political Report
Brian Sandoval has promised that if he is elected governor he won’t raise taxes. But that doesn’t mean he won’t let others do it.
The Republican candidate said Monday that he would support giving local governments the authority to raise taxes, if the state turns over responsibility for some services to cities and counties.
Sandoval has not released a plan for how he will balance the state budget. Experts say revenue for the biennium will come in about $3 billion below current spending levels.
On a tour of Galena High School in Reno on Monday, Sandoval was asked whether he saw waste or duplication as he has toured almost 80 schools statewide.
The candidate didn’t answer the question. But he said the budget problems are so large all sources of state funding are going to have to take a hit.
He said he hoped that teachers would take a salary cut. And he criticized his Democratic opponent, Rory Reid, for promising to spare K-12 and higher education, which make up 55 percent of the budget.
Pressed for details on how he will balance the budget, Sandoval pointed to giving “home rule,” which allows local governments to make more decisions without the Legislature’s approval.
Asked if that would include giving counties the ability to raise taxes, Sandoval said, “Yes. But it would come with responsibilities.”
Reid’s campaign said Sandoval’s position amounts to “passing the buck.”
“Brian Sandoval doesn’t want to make any decision,” spokesman Mike Trask said. “Brian Sandoval has promised for months to provide a budget plan for Nevada. He has refused to do so.”
Later, Sandoval’s campaign clarified his comments to say that home rule would not extend to school districts, which don’t have individual taxing authority. Funding levels for school districts throughout the state must be equal.
In explaining his support for more local government control, Sandoval said local elected leaders meet year-round, the Legislature meets every two years. “There’s a disconnect,” he said.
State Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, last week raised the possibility of the state shifting some of its responsibilities to local governments, such as parole and probation and community colleges.
Although local elected officials had a mix of reactions to the idea, they uniformly expressed concern that state officials were avoiding making a tough choice between cutting or raising taxes.
Sandoval told high school students that he could improve education by giving schools more control, creating competition among campuses by using vouchers and giving merit pay to teachers whose students perform well. He also said it wouldn’t require any more money.
But some improvements do require money.
At Galena High, Assistant Principal Silvia Marin told Sandoval about some of the struggles and improvements the school had made. Hispanic English-language learners don’t make up a proportionate number of the advanced placement students. She said early last year the school had no after-school bus, meaning students without other transportation had to leave at 2:30 p.m. They couldn’t stay for after-school tutoring, to use computers or participate in programs such as ROTC.
That changed when a new school superintendent came in and asked what the school needed. Marin said they got the extra late bus, at a cost of $9,000 per semester.
Typical useless politician...talking out of both sides of his mouth...
...but saying nothing from either side.
THESE are our choices for future leaders?
Are we in trouble or what?
What's the difference between this guy and Gibbons?
He will allow Clark County to raise taxes, and then siphon these new funds and send them to Lander County.
The "I won't raise taxes!" proclamation from both Sandoval & Rory Reid should disqualify both of them from the election for Nevada's next Governor.
There are, of course, certain essential services that need to be funded. The money has to come from
SOMEWHERE. OF COURSE they can take some silly "pledge"; it's MEANINGLESS.
What Sandoval is saying is;
"I have NO PLANS to help you. But, certainly, as the state abandons you, your local Counties & cities can choose to do what's necessary to fund essential services. Heck, that's up to you guys."
"No Problemo!"
I've been looking at the numbers and it seems like the state Never actually cut the budget during the recession. http://prgibbons.blogspot.com/2010/10/ha...
We will need a 59 percent tax increase to cover the state agency budget request - that would be over 3 times larger than the largest tax hike in state history. Do you want one party in complete control to deal with the budget?
There are two ways to do things. The fantasy based way looks at what other people say about what other people said about what the other people said, and each round of fantasy uses the former rounds of fantasy as the basis for their conclusions. The reality-based way tries to figure things out by going to the original sources and analyzing the data for accuracy, and bases analysis and action firmly upon accurate validated original data.
Nevada is in fantasy mode. It has been in fantasy mode for some time. It elected a "no-new-tax" Governor -- and things got worse. The Governor was of one party and the Legislature mostly of another party -- and things got worse. We put in term limits -- things got worse. We put in tax limits -- things got worse.
Maybe -- just maybe -- we could persist in Reality mode long enough to fix the place we live.
Good. Local leaders should have to bear the burden of their own poor decisions. If they want to pay off the public sector unions for political support, they will have to also raise taxes. Let's see how long the Bell, Californiaish pandering goes under the harsh light of a possible tax increase.
Mr. Goodman, the reality based way of analyzing the data for accuracy etc., is a good idea. So lets do it.
In 2003 the state legislature's tax hike produced enough revenue so that the state coffers had 31 percent more money by FY 2004. A booming economy kept those revenue's going.
For 2007-09 the Nevada state legislature approved a $6.9 billion biennium budget. The recession hit us hard in 2008.
In 2009 the legislature did some budget cuts and we ended up with a $6.9 billion budget. We had tax increases over $700 million worth.
In 2010 the legislature did some more budget cuts, slashing the general fund from $6.9 to $6.4 (and amount that is still equivalent to what we spent in 05-07 in inflation adjusted dollars).
But this cut was rhetorical only. $591 million in Federal ARRA money offset those cuts. So in reality we cut from a $6.9 billion budget to a $7 billion budget.
IN reality world, we aren't going to fix this mess by raising taxes AGAIN. We've raised taxes twice. Once to create a massive government spending bubble and once more to maintain that spending bubble.
This is a recession. Revenues are down. People are struggling. You don't keep raising taxes so government officials can keep their party going.
sandoval is a coward...
what a cowardly statement...
yet another republican non leader...
in the pocket of big business...
pathetic...
absolutely pathetic...
If local officials raise taxes, can't the state just take the revenue from the local governments while proclaiming the state didn't raise taxes? Isn't that essentially what ballot question #5 is about?
Well if Sandoval is for 'Home Rule' he just got my vote.
What? Sandoval is saying something? Anything? I thought he knew better than that... if he starts saying what he's going to do.... people might just realize he isn't the anti- Reid. ... he better be careful!
Maybe there's some merit to this idea. Clark County has always been the deep pockets in Nevada. There's alot more money going out to the states general fund than we get back. In fact, why don't we just get rid of the state government and every county is on their own. I think Clark County would come out in pretty good shape.
So he wants to allow the City of Henderson to continue to overpay their fireloafers and gun crazy cops by raising taxes every year? This is like letting a fox into the hen house. I thought Rory was the liberal nut, but now I may just have to vote for him.
Disappointing how bad our candidates for governor are-both worse than Gibbons?
Republican Tea-Party Radicals Policies That Every time destroys American Economy
1. Tea-party Radical Sara Palin Clip shows she Was baptized in some kind of WitchCrafting temple, She Is only Empty Air Sugar Coated Empty Balloon.
2. Tea Party Radical O'Donald Became Christian Because she is Allowed to Eat meat balls.
3. Tea-party Radical "Sharron Angle", She Has The Repeating The ""Same Idea of Bush & Chiney Republicans Tea-party Darling "" Privatizing in Stock Market"Social Security "", Abolish Department of Education&Veterans Hospitals "
4. Tea-party Radical ""Meg Whitman"" JOB Destructive Shipped Around 40% American JOBS ""OffSure"" Same Idea of Bush & Chiney Republicans Tea-party Darling "" Called American Worker Dumb and when she when hired and imported Foreign workers with H1-B Visa.
5. Tea-party Radical OHAIO ""Rich Lott"" Have Fun Wearing Ugly Hitler Nazi uniform. Has The "" Same Idea of Bush & Chiney Republicans Tea-party Darling.
6. Tea-party Radical ""Carly Fiorina"", Republican Tea-Party American JOBS Destructive Shipped 30,000 Jobs Offshore illegally Sold HP Technology Equipments to IRAN. She should be tried for""""""""" Treason""""""", not running for a seat in our Federal government's Senate.
7. Tea-party Radical Rick Scott His company, Columbia/HCA, ran up $1.7 billion in settlement fines for cheating Medicare in Florida.
8. Tea-party Radical "Rubio Repeating" The Same Idea of Bush & Chiney Republicans Tea-party Darling "" Privatizing in Stock Market"Social Security "", Abolish Department of Education&Veterans Hospitals "
9. Tea-party Radical "Miller" We Want to have Deficit of Bush Tax Cut Give Away to Wall street & millionairs. But We Teap-Party Uprise because but are MAD of Deficit
10.Tea-party Radical Rand Paul when Talks Feels like He wants to "Separate public Black and white Restrooms".
Just_Me: "Well if Sandoval is for 'Home Rule' he just got my vote."
Agreed... but why doesn't he just come out for home rule? Seems fishy.
In other words, he doesn't have a plan. I've said it before: a 4-year-old can be trained to say "cut budgets, no new taxes." That is not leadership. Leadership requires vision and planning. Our state needs new industries to bring in new revenues. What's the plan? What are the projected timetables for implementing the plan? What's the vision?
If all you want is a governor who says "no new taxes, cut budgets," then I'll do the job for free and save you all some money.
Thanks, Patrick. So I take it that one of the problems of State Budgeting is that it is not accurately counting things. The state "cut" it's budget, but did not include what it spent in federal stimulus money, so it actually had higher expenditures than originally budgeted. Your point being that the Nevada state budget is not reality as far as income and expenses go but instead is a work of fiction.
It would seem to follow that we need to accurately account for things. This is simple to say, but it will take broad agreement on a number of technical matters that are absolutely fundamental if we are ever to get things right but will bore everyone -- and of course it will take time at a time in which the public is impatient for results and totally intolerant of any delay.
I think I am going to like Governor Sandoval...
I wouldn't be surprised if Sandoval wrote a book on Good Government management with a foreword by Jim Gibbons.
Right - let the locals raise the Taxes, then by State Law, the Nevada State Government can appropriate the revenues for their own use. THIS IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW! The RENO GOVERNMENT already appropriates revenues from Southern Nevada, like UNLV students, so that the Mesquite Ranchers can have their roads paved without paying the bills. These are the northerners that showed up for Sarah Palin's rally in Reno. Chunky Buns.
The more the Liberals demonize Brian Sandoval, the better I like him...
As with all Sun writers, Schwartz has a hard time being objective. I'm an independent voter, but I just had to laugh at the way this article was written. Such a joke that these supposed new sources pepper their articles with so many biased comments and snide remarks.
In my opinion, when it comes to the budget, The focus should be mostly on spending cuts and identifying waste. Everything from DOT projects, to programs that aren't being utilized by a significant number of people, and definitely projects that simply line the pockets of the "friends" of the politicians, but don't really improve the lives of the citizens. Both of these knuckleheads should realize this. Rory shouldn't exclude education from the cuts, and Sandoval shouldn't be focused on any tax increases until every wasteful dollar (or at least the vast majority) is identified and eliminated.
They should definitely be focused on diversifying the economy, but I don't think that will require much, as far as cash outflow is concerned. Offer tax holidays for companies in certain industries that hire a certain number of people, look in to deals on land, etc.
Most importantly, improve the quality of the education system. I personally think that Sandoval's plan is much better than Rory's, which is why I'll probably vote for him. I just hope he can actually implement the strategies outlined in the plan, specifically the merit based compensation and the ability to identify/reward/fire principals/teachers based on their performance.
Carson City can't keep up with LV issues. How about giving Clark Co. the ability to decide things like allowing camera enforcement of red light running, illegal turns, and expired registrations? That could actually be profitable. How about requiring hands free cell usage? At least if we have to pay more taxes, our insurance bills will decrease.
Life as we knew it in Nevada has changed. Prepare for some sort of new taxes. No matter what, it will not be fair to everyone. Even if we eliminate all state government, we will still have a huge deficit. I doubt very much that gaming, mining, ag, or other industries "contributing" to our politicians will take a hit.
Only chuckle headed dittoheads who listen to local talk radio think this clown won't raise taxes, after all he went to court to over-ride the 60% requirement to raise taxes.
I'm sorry to see local broadcasters tolerate this type of hypocrisy. I heard some local boot-lick-er on radio today talking about "Harry REID'S EARMARKS."
Of course, Ensign and Heller vote for them too.
You never get a tough question for a Republican on local hate talk radio.
I'm also shocked that Beasley Broadcasting refuses to apologize for the anti-LDS bigotry expressed by Las Vegas Review Journal columnist: Wayne Alan Root (10/15/2010 at 2:44 PM on the "Jerry Doyle Show" on KDWN 720AM) that: "Harry Reid was a member of the Mormon Mafia."
@SunJon...
"I wouldn't be surprised if Sandoval wrote a book on Good Government management with a foreword by Jim Gibbons."
LOL!!!!!!
Thanks for that wonderful quote; I will be laughing about that one all day.
Great post, Jon.
Mr ed and friends have to follow party lines and vote for Rory, because Harry told them so...
Yea raise the taxes through the roof on the locals. Thats the ticket. Annie get your gun. How stupid are you Nevadans? This sandieval is a pretty boy clown puppet. Only in Nevada can he get such a following. Maybe he should run with Palin on her broom for president.
I wonder how many of the commentators (who are not on Rory's staff) actually read the article. Headlines won't do.
Sandoval said that he is not opposed to giving local governments the power to raise taxes. That is it.
Those in Clark County who complain about unequal distribution should be happy. Dems should be happy, since the Dems dominate local government (which may explain why local governments are such a disaster). Conservatives who welcome more local rule should be happy. When the County, the City of Las Vegas, and NLV tax themselves to death trying to raise the funds for public-sector union payoffs, citizens can vote with their feet and go to Henderson or Boulder City. Competition is grand.
Once again, all that he said was that he was not opposed to local governments having more control.
Rory is a clown too. He wants to get rid of jobs for Nevadans by eliminating agencies. How stupid is that. There are already 150k unemployed. Lets make more jobless. Wake up you sheep.
You know, I was on the fence with this race - looks like I'm going to be voting for Reid now...
Wish I thought David Curtis (Green Party) could stand a chance, I really liked him.
Hit the nail on the head gmag!!
Mr. Goodman,
I'm not 100% sure if we actually made any real cuts to the budget. I'm thinking the cuts were very, very small at worst and at best, spending was probably flat. There aren't updated figures online and my calls and emails to the LCB and state budget office have gone unanswered.
But you're right. Democrats and Republicans should all agree that an accurate accounting and reporting of spending is being done. It should be posted online in an easy to search and understand format.
I think we should also post the state checkbook online that way we can see the spending down to the dollar.
I think the only way anyone will get the right to vote for taxes in this economy is one can prove that every dollar is being used wisely and there is no more room for cuts.
Besides, I think the purpose of government is to provide those services which the market a) cannot or b) will underpovide (market failure). The purpose of government is not to give cushy jobs to people while pretending to provide those services (government failure).
I also think we shouldn't have kicked the can down the road like we have. We should have made real cuts in 2008 some more real cuts in 2009 and more real cuts in 2010 rather than trying our hardest to sustain boom town spending levels.
I think that way we could have eased out of the spending bubble while allowing the private sector to recover quicker.
Now we have a massive budget request we cannot possibly fill with a tax increase (59 percent). Even Governor Gibbons' figure is next to impossible to fill with a tax increase (38 percent).
Someone please tell me what is wrong with Governor Brian Sandoval saying that he is not opposed to giving local governments the power to raise taxes.
The only thing worse than our choices for governor are our choices for Attorney General.
Increasing and expanding the taxing authority of cities and counties doesn't sound like the stuff of which limited government is made. The unfortunate condition of Reno and Las Vegas suggests that there is no greater genius at work within municipal levels of Nevada government than there is at the state legislature.
just an example of why NEITHER gov wannabees will ever do anything worthwhile. Your local liars in goverment give out compensations of 174K for fire and 150K for cops= guarantees of millionaire status in retirement . . . and nincumpoop Sandoval says "let do what they want" cause he doesn't have the balls to be a good gov.
No need to raise taxes.
Rory Reid said that he would consider a
state lottery.
LET'S DO IT.