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AP Photo/Cathleen Allison
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval delivers his inaugural address during Monday’s inauguration ceremony, Jan. 3, 2011 at the Capitol in Carson City.
Friday, Jan. 21, 2011 | 1:14 p.m.
Sun Coverage
Liberal groups are trying to stir up opposition to Gov. Brian Sandoval's no-new-taxes budget that the new governor will deliver Monday during his first State of the State speech.
There's been a growing sense of worry from the set of lawmakers and interests who argue that new revenue is needed to avoid deep cuts to state services like health care programs, K-12 and higher education. Particularly since the retirement of Bill Raggio, the longtime Republican state senator from Reno, pro-tax representatives have been increasingly frustrated trying to figure out how they will be able to raise taxes.
The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada said it will bus advocates for state services to the Legislature in Carson City for Monday's speech. The state teacher’s union has scheduled a viewing party for Las Vegas.
Bob Fulkerson, executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance and a new group called Nevada Values Coalition, released a progressive alternative state of the state video, which called on Sandoval to use a “balanced approach” to the budget. “No new taxes is just another way of saying no solutions,” he said.
Sandoval was seen as a moderate before he jumped onto the campaign trail in 2008, but has fully embraced the roll of conservative champion.
He made that clear once again today, in a press release about the increase of the state's unemployment rate to 14.5 percent.
“We cannot burden struggling businesses with tax increases, and why we cannot ask the struggling family to pay more," Sandoval said in a statement. "We must allow sunsetting taxes to expire at the end of June and provide businesses the environment in which to begin hiring again."
The Legislature convenes on Feb. 7, though lawmakers will hold hearings on Sandoval's budget starting next week.
The Legislature in 2009 for the first time overrode a governor's veto and passed its own budget, which included tax increases that will expire on June 30th.
But that was when Gov. Jim Gibbons, and his baggage, at the helm.
With Sandoval and his deep well of political capital in charge, he is expected to be the dominant force of the Legislature. It will make it difficult for Democrats to peel off the three Republican senators and two Republican Assembly members they would need for a two-thirds majority.
The belief that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to raise taxes in the 2011 Legislature has crescendoed since Bill Raggio, the 38-year veteran of the state senate, announced he would not serve in his final Legislative session. Raggio, a Republican who had encouraged Sandoval to run against former Gov. Jim Gibbons, had openly talked about the need to preserve "essential services," even if that might require a tax increase.
In his alternate State of the State video, Fulkerson proposed eliminating mining tax deductions, a sales tax on "luxury services" and a net profit tax on businesses making over $500,000 a year.
"We're not asking struggling businesses to pay more," he said in an interview. "We're asking profitable companies to pay more."
Republican legislators have indicated that they will follow the lead of Sandoval, who will have to reveal how he balances the budget on Monday. He had promised before the election to reveal how he would balance the budget without raising taxes, but never followed through on that pledge.
He may look like John Travolta, but his plans for this place are simply revolting.
When Sando rejected the wisdom from Raggio, he took the reins and whipped this dying horse.
Bill apparently had had quite enough of this kind of shenanigans and skulduggery from the gov's manse, and had the cojones to do the right thing and walk home.
Dipstick,
Its not about raising more taxes, its about cutting spending, so prepare for your welfare check to be lowered.
What company uses his budget proposal? So Apple Computer will tell all their departments their getting a cut, and then they see who does the best? What? No way.
They would fund divisions on the basis of projections of what would bring the best growth and revenues. So if they think Brazil might be a growing market, they would put more resources there. If they think Japan is a stable market they might maintain the status quo.
If we are trying to diversify the economy, maybe we should increase the budget for the agriculture department, not cut it. (Note the new shrimp farm for example.)
If they think "pads" are a growing market sector, they put more resources there, and less on desktops for example. Cutting everything is nuts.
People say Obama does not have business experience. He did work in Chicago dealing with small business, jobs and the like as a community organizer. Sandoval has no experience in business. The law firm he worked at had a business manager. A judge and a lawyer and a figurehead for the same Republican politics that wrecked the State. 16 years of Republican Governors.
Jim Walsh, a Republican congressman from Illonious has refused to take retirement of medical insurance from his job in the House. Why doesn't Sandoval refuse his? If government healthcare is bad, give up yours Brian.
Stop spending. No new spending.
Reduce the size of government.
Abolish unconstitutional departments and functions.
Restore states rights.
A balanced budget amendment (federal).
Go after medicare/medicaid fraud with a vengeance.
Close the border. No taxpayer funded services for illegals. Restore workplace raids alongside employer enforcement.
Reduce corporate taxes. Permanently kill the death tax.
Protect right to work states. Keep secret ballots. Bust public employee unions that continue to fleece the tax payer.
Tort reform aimed at medical malpractice lawyers to reduce nuisance and John Doe suits.
Medical (and auto) Insurance sales across all state lines.
Allow voluntary retirement contributions plus social security. Raise minimum age for full benefits. Reduce partial benefits for early retirement.
Require all civilian government employees to contribute to both their retirement and health care.
Freeze government spending at pre-Pelosi/Reid (2006) levels for starters.
Require spending at no more than 90% of revenues. Require remaining 10% to be split between deficit reduction and emergency spending lock box accounts that can't be touched for any other purpose. Require Congressional declaration of national emergency to use emergency funds.
Stop ethanol fuel program. Kill the EPA, turn resource usage over to states. Sign sugar ethanol import agreement with South American companies. Require US resources to receive priority over imports. Bring the troops home from foreign bases where not needed for treaty compliance. Kick the UN out of the US. Reduce foreign aid. Stop negotiating (giving away tax payer funds) with Americas enemies.
How's that for just a few ideas. There are hundreds more.
Best way to destroy Nevada---increase taxes during this difficult time economically.
Leftists will never see that because they think bigger government is better government, despite what our Founders believed and in spite of what world history shows.
FWIW:
The financial structure of government entities throughout America, at all levels is/or becoming non-viable -- 60-minutes recently ran an episode "State Budgets The Day of Reckoning" involving the cutbacks the governor of New Jersey is imposing upon a state which is currently over 65 BILLION dollars in debt with no light at the end of the fiscal solvency tunnel -- there was yet another interview with the Comptroller of Illinois who is only paying merchants of the state that are in hardship, the rest are receiving IOU's which can only be redeemed after a time period of 6 to 18 months. Another episode of interest is Florida's proposal involving the proliferation of state slot machines entitled "The Big Gamble" a desperate attempt to generate new sources of revenues.
The moral of the stories is that government spending MUST immediately and drastically be significantly reduced.
Ref: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/60_minutes/...
On a similar note: Taxation is the drug of the government spending junkie - criminalizing such social-theft is the first step to civil rehabilitation.
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The government has gotten enough of the citizens tax money, it's time they answer where it's all going.
You don't keep throwing money into a fire.
"Its not about raising more taxes, its about cutting spending, so prepare for your welfare check to be lowered."
Also be prepared for more potholes, unsynchronized traffic lights, uninsured vehicles, unlicensed drivers, crime, longer response times or no response from cops and fire, longer DMV waits, closed museums/parks/libraries/pools, higher tuition costs, IQ-challenged kids, graffiti, panhandling, stray dogs, food poisoning, blight, backed-up toilets, local govt. fees, and could-absolutely-care-less-attitudes from the tens of thousands of state employees that make the state tic.
UHaul, anyone?
It's interesting that everyone is so worried about Sandoval now when they should have been worried about him during the campaign. His being in office is the fault of both parties. He aid absolutely nothing during the entire campaign season yet he was swept into office as the savior of the state. Now it's time to deal with the consequences.
It's interesting that everyone is so worried about Sandoval now when they should have been worried about him during the campaign. His being in office is the fault of both parties. He said absolutely nothing during the entire campaign season yet he was swept into office as the savior of the state. Now it's time to deal with the consequences.
Nothing positive will happen until Gaming pays its fair share ...at least double its current rate.
"eliminating mining tax deductions, a sales tax on "luxury services" and a net profit tax on businesses making over $500,000 a year"
Elimination mining deductions or significantly reducing them would require a change in Nevada's Constitution. In the Constitution it states that is a net tax not a gross tax on proceeds.
A profit tax would also require a change in the Constitution.
" He said absolutely nothing during the entire campaign season "
He said about every day...."I promise not to raise taxes."
Even the other guy say no to tax increases.
If you want to whine then whine about yourself.
You should have worked hard to nominate a person to run in your party that wanted to raise taxes big time.
Dale: we are talking about the Nevada budget. None of your ideas work there.
Sure, let's cut everything. After all, government does nothing well, does it? Let's see...
You're on the internet, which was invented by the U.S. Military (ARPANET).
To access the internet, you use government regulated access, which forbids companies from restricting access to certain websites.
You live in a house that, because of a government inspector, you can be assured is safe.
You have a steady supply of electricity, which exists because (in part) of government aid to utilities.
You own a car that has safety features, such as seatbelts and airbags, that protect your life. The government requires them.
You drive on a road that was designed and built by the government. The rules of the road help keep you safe, and they were enacted and enforced by the government.
You learned to do your job (most likely) from a government operated school by a government employee.
You eat food that is safe because of government inspection.
You are protected by military, police, and firefighters that the government trains and employs.
I could go on, and on. Do you people think this stuff is done for free? Yes, there is waste in government, but there are tons of studies that show it is actually more efficient than most fortune 500 companies. There is not $3 billion in waste in Nevada's government. In short, you want the government to help you, protect you, and provide services for you, but you don't want to pay for it.
Hypocrites.
The article is entitled "liberals seek pushback." This is a good thing in a democratic system.
Will they find any is the question?
"The state teacher's union has scheduled a viewing party for Las Vegas."
Don't have it at CCSD's Sahara office, you already have a pervert working there having his on viewing party with what he thought was a 14 year old child in Utah.
Cutting spending is not the answer to everything. If you want to cut the unemployment rate you have to be able to attract companies to Nevada. One of the things high on the list of factors companies consider is the education system. Our high school graduation rate is around 65% which ranks us 50th, our spending per student is 49th. Education spending is directly related to our ability to attract business to our state and in turn lower the unemployment rate. They understand that in South Korea, why don't we get it here? http://marketplace.publicradio.org/displ...
Dale: I like your ideas, but lets go back to the 2001 buget + get rid of all the Tsars. Then get rid of the TSA and put the local LEA in charge. This would be just a beginning.
I like the idea of screw up tax the little guy. The liberal programs have failed miserably and so now we need more money to keep the failures going. When will they ever learn.
The Animal Farm Liberals are looking for Boxer to do all of their work for them.
mred it is time to change your diapers. You've filled them to the point of overflowing.
Dale, excellent point. The parasites like to blame Sarah for the liberal-caused violence that has raced across America since the Father of Evil, LBJ, spawned his darkness on our nation.
All kinds of liberals cried and blatted and blamed Sarah Palin for the Arizona shooting.
But not a single liberal that EVER cries about violence in the Las Vegas Sun, several on this very page, or the SUN itself ever said one single word about the innocent little babies in PA being executed by scissors.
No, not a word of protests from the parasites.
It comes from 50 years of liberal teaching and brainwashing. They can not be expected to understand political events.
The floodgates of the blabber-mouth liberals will continue to open the dams of hell.
I think that it's in the state's best interest to pull back on spending. Anyone who has Sandoval's job is going to be in a tough position and I admire him for standing up and doing the job. I don't know that he is paid enough for all of his hard work!
Someone's got bees in his bonnet, and bats in his belfry...
Anyone care to guess who???
What do you call a five percent cut in salary for all public employees?
Answer: An unfair tax on a small minority of the population who can't afford to pay it.
As the Day of Reckoning nears"
Plans are being drawn up to let states declare bankruptcy.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41188877/ns/...
Public financing is going to be forever changed as Pensioners and Investors in State bonds will likely become the big losers.
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Shame on Nevada for dumping this steaming heap on the shoulders of its children and the people who are trying to help them. I guess we have to punish someone other than the elected officials who are really responsible for this mess.
"It comes from 50 years of liberal teaching and brainwashing. They can not be expected to understand political events."
"The floodgates of the blabber-mouth liberals will continue to open the dams of hell."
Hyperbole anyone?
...and you actually have voting rights?
Scary.
American corporations reported their highest quarter profit ever in quarter number 4 2010, almost 1.7 trillion in profits. Approximately one third of all profit increases in that quarter went to Wall Street and hedge funds. The stock market under President Obama has gone up more in two years than only two other US Presidents. The tax cuts were extended on personal income, dividend stock and capital gains. Corporate bonuses are back strong. So, we must ask responsible questions. Where is the link between profits and new jobs? Where is the link between enrichment at the top and new jobs? Now Republicans are trying to find outs for state and local entities to not meet their obligations to former employees who earned their pensions. Now we have Republican Governors who are going to cut school funding and social net services like Medicaid (nursing homes, mental health services for Americans) without any thought of raising taxes to maintain services at the reasonable levels. Remember Rick Perry in Texas talking about Texas having an 8 billion dollar rainy day fund two years ago and few problems while the rest of the country was suffering. Texas was creating 60 percent of all new jobs in the country. Republican Governor Perry was touting his leadership! Well, it was just more of that Republican spin and hustle. Rick's Texas is now looking at a 28 billion budget shortfall, and the legislature is PUBLICLY proposing education cuts of 15 percent, but they are coming in more like EIGHTEEN PERCENT at the local levels. One has to wonder if Perry will run for the White House on a 28 billion shortfall, as a former State Agriculture Commisioner who has "never lost an election". In Nevada we have Brian Sandoval talking the same game, cuts to education and Medicaid. Except Nevada has much less economic diversity and natural resources, so the long term impact will be more harmful to ordinary folk than in Texas. When Eisenhower was President, people paid an 80 percent tax rate on income starting at 3 million dollars. Gee, how many meals at a time can the wealthiest Americans eat? How much can they shop and spend in a year?
Dale is on the road to bringing back child labor, sweat shops and 70 hour weeks with no vacations.
"Closing the Border" means BIG SPENDING for POLICE, PRISONS, BLACK HELICOPTERS, and Munitions. Get ready for a traffic camera on every corner, and traffic tickets sent out using bulk mailing rates (this creates 'jobs'). GOP spending for Military and Police functions will have no limits, as they have already promised.
See your taxes increase to pay for Jack Boot security, and one major State Religion established and supported by Tax dollars...all other Religions will be pushed into the ground.
I m a republican, and i say we need to raise taxes in Nevada.
The mining firms in our state can afford to pay more taxes.
And legalizing, regulating, and taxing the hell out of the mega prostitution in Las Vegas is a no brainer solution people, seriously.
Gov. Sandoval can blame it all on former Gov. Jim Gibbons.
That is just my view, as a republican who has no teabags hanging off my head anyway.
Selah............
As opposed to Dennis' ideas....whoops...he has none other than MORE TAXES. Dennis if you like taxes so much you can send more in. Noone is stopping you from doing your patriotic duty to give every dollar you have to the government. Animal farm liberals. That's a keeper!
Jon your comment is devoid of logic and simply just fear mongering. You're saying we can send a man to the moon but can't control a narrow strip of land on our Southern border. It's the Democrats that want the cheap labor. Remember NAFTA? If they didn't want cheap labor they'd have secured the border by now.
bbt
You are wrong on your comment about the Dems and the border.
It's the repubs that want cheap labor.
The dems want illiterate voters so that they can get a majority in congress ,that way they can get lots of funding for things like education ...butt... what will happen if the illiterates that the dems are counting on become educated?
I guess they have to hope that they all become educated liberals!
Dale,
Here's the thing about your talking points:
"protect right to work states" Nevada IS a right to work state and we have probably the highest unemployment in the nation.
"raise the social security age" Mine is 68 for full benefits and I've never had a relative live past 62. Why should I fund YOUR retirement when I'll be dead long before I collect? Also, where are the jobs for the 70 year olds?
"medical tort reform" Yeah, we have that here, which is why Dr. Desei got to give a bunch of people a death sentence with no fear of losing all his assets in court. It's cost the county lots of bucks to investigate and test all those people.
"kill the EPA" Have you ever seen Erin Brokovich? Were you here when Pepcon blew up? I was. We still have chemicals in our water because of that little mishap.
"permanently kill the death tax" Because Paris Hilton needs to keep her billions tax free. They aren't taxing death, they are taxing asset transfer. It's an estate tax and it has high exemptions. My Mom died last month. I didn't get a bill. There is no "death tax"
"medical and (auto) insurance across state lines" Good luck with that in Nevada. Try being a doctor and getting your company's health insurance from anyone except Sierra / United Healthcare. You will find yourself out of business since they own greater than 47% of the market if you include the network leased to other plans. They (illegally) strongarm every provider in their network to make sure the company insurance premium goes to them.
Agreed on illegal immigration, but what about the kids who were dragged over the border at age two, don't speak Spanish, and have lived here since toddlerhood?
You've got to look at each issue and make up your own mind. Don't listen to the talking heads on the right, or on the left. Don't think there are easy answers for everything either. There are a few proplems with easy answers, but not many.
To my mind, the answer isn't necessarily less government, it's that I wish they would do their damn jobs properly.
The liberal government officials next-door in California are finally realizing that they can only tax the people and businesses so much, and now they are starting to slash their budgets because the people and businesses are leaving CA in droves! Sandoval is castigated by Nevada liberals for attempting to rescue our economy BEFORE it's too late, like in CA. Do liberals here in the Silver State want to keep following the policies which have bankrupted California? From the sound of the liberal rants on this page, it seems so.
Gregory, Markey & the_Next_Opinion...
RIGHT ON THE MONEY!!!
Tax and spend is over. Done. We've run out of money. Nevada, the states and the country are broke, bankrupt, kaput. There is no more money. Time for government to live within it's means.
How? Simple. Not easy, but simple. Establish a list of priorities and fund the ones you can in order of priority. When tax revenues are gone, that's it. No deficit spending. It's illegal (for states now) anyway and with any luck will be for the federal government by the end of the decade.
The teachers union needs to be careful. They are doing their members a disservice by putting the unions survival ahead of their membership. Teachers unions could find themselves becoming extinct by fighting the tax payers and the health of the state. Their it's us against everyone else posture makes their future dim. Teachers need to take control of their unions or they will find themselves without effective representation.
"Gregory, Markey & the_Next_Opinion...
RIGHT ON THE MONEY!!"
--------------------
Thank you, not all of us on here have teabags stuffed in our ears.
.-)
"The teachers union needs to be careful. They are doing their members a disservice by putting the unions survival ahead of their membership. Teachers unions could find themselves becoming extinct by fighting the tax payers and the health of the state. Their it's us against everyone else posture makes their future dim. Teachers need to take control of their unions or they will find themselves without effective representation."
Unions protect teachers and and children from people like you. Besides, what "tax payers" are you referring to?
Public Employees are the ones getting stuck with a tax increase. For my money, I would like to see Nevada's children benefit from it. I don't know how they can afford to have any more taken away from them.
Raise taxes on gaming and mining, but not on me personally! OMG, you all want to complain but you don't want to step up to pitch in.
"Patriotism is the Last Refuge for a Scoundrel"
-Samuel Johnson, April 7, 1775
And just right for Saturday Night Live.
"Raise taxes on gaming and mining, but not on me personally! OMG, you all want to complain but you don't want to step up to pitch in."
--------------------------
Funny how some people(who are not rich themselves) defend those who pay little to no taxes in the first place, don t ya know?
You betcha..
Hmmm. Gaming state continues to have difficulty accepting its old illusions don't work. It thinks that by beating the same old tired elephant something magical will happen
I just heard some breaking news on CNN- Sandoval is working on his State of the State speech and ran out of crayons. Does anyone have some he can borrow? He claims no new taxes, but is doing nothing more than implementing a 5% income tax on state employees. There are many things we can implement to cut costs in state government, but Sandoval hasn't done his homework. Here's a few ideas:
1. A 38 hour work week for every state employee would be the equivalent of a 5% pay cut. Many state employees have second jobs to make ends meet, and could work an extra couple of hours a week in the private sector to compensate the loss of pay. This is what happens with the furlough currently in place. If we are truly sharing the burden of the state's financial crisis among all Nevadans, cutting 2 hours a week is reasonable.
2. Leave the furloughs as they are. This is the equivalent of a 4.6% pay cut for all state employees, and allows the opportunity for outside work. As health insurance costs have risen dramatically for state workers and their families, a second job is often necessary to pay the bills. I'm very thankful for my second job in the private sector.
3. Decrease Medicaid benefits. Medicaid is actually a much better insurance plan than any health plan offered to state workers or those in the private sector. The health plans offered to state workers have huge co-pays, premiums, and deductables, and no dental or vision coverage. Medicaid has no copays, deductables, or premiums.
4. Mining should pay it's fare share!!
5. Four day work weeks for state offices. This has been done in other states, and saves a huge amount of money in operating costs, utilities, etc. Might be a sacrifice that all Nevadan's can share.
6. Implement a state lottery. This has produced gigantic revenue for K-12 education in other states. The concept is very simple. Sell lottery tickets for a weekly lotto drawing. Give half of the revenue to the winner and half to education. If the casinos throw a tantrum, figure out a way to place lotto ticket sales in the casinos.
We are currently 49th out of 50 states in funding per population on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, and we have one of the poorest K-12 education systems on the planet. If we don't want stupid children or mentally ill people breaking into our homes, we need to pay for these things. We can financially cripple these systems and then criticise them for not being adequate, or we can get real. We need to preserve some critical aspects of government or face the consequences. Sandoval's idea to link funding to teacher performance will simply mean good teachers migrating to schools in the nicer areas of town where grades have always been higher. They would then be perceived as better teachers, as the students would be performing better, and they would get more pay than a teacher in poorer areas of town. We really need good teachers in the poor schools, as the need is significant there.
I love to see the public leaches squirm. I am going to fully enjoy this legislative session.
15% of Nevadans are unemployed, the other 85% is living on half of what they used to, and the public employees are crying over 5%. Give me a break!
are the little bitty libbies betting worried? Laughing.