Sandoval’s paradoxical State of the State

By Jon Ralston

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

On the bright side, Gov. Brian Sandoval kept his campaign promises.

On the dark side, Gov. Brian Sandoval kept his campaign promises.

Rarely do candidates get to say they proposed ideas — in this case, education reform and no new taxes — that they immediately try to enact once elected. And amid the louder-than-usual wailing and teeth-gnashing that predictably follows States of State, accompanied by whispers of discontent in the Legislative Building, the hectoring horde seems to have forgotten something: Sandoval ran as a conservative Republican and now proposes to govern as one. What did everyone expect?

There were no real surprises Monday evening. Sandoval, in his first State of the State address, was true to his word.

And although his word may be good, what the governor said about the budget was not. It was a speech Jim Gibbons would have been proud to give, full of some of the worst budget gimmickry I have seen in 25 years as yet another governor has played number games, this time cloaked in reform, to keep a campaign promise that never should have been made. Unlike many of Sandoval’s critics, I give him credit for proposing some fundamental changes to an ossified educational system, but to decouple discussions of teacher tenure, social promotion, all-day kindergarten and class-size reduction from funding levels is like trying to promote economic diversification while gutting the higher education system. (“Come to Nevada. We are the State of Nothing. No taxes. No regulation. And, oh by the way, no educational system, either.”)

And those, not coincidentally, were the paradoxical twin messages of Sandoval’s speech. Indeed, I have been calling Sandoval Gov. Sunny for his preternatural optimism in the face of Nevada’s bleakest days. But perhaps Gov. Paradox is more apt.

Sandoval is Reaganesque in his affability and unflappability — he may be the toughest person to interview in state history — but like the Gipper, he’s a nice man with some not so nice policies. He is expansive in his view of the state’s potential for economic development but he doesn’t seem to get the disconnect with cementing Nevada’s education system as the most poorly funded in the country. He talked about how he could not “blindly accept” devastating health and human services cuts proposed by Gibbons, yet his foisting services onto the counties and eradicating others will tear the fabric of an already thin government social safety net. And he talks so glibly about how businesses and families can’t pay more in taxes during these economic times — a hollow shibboleth that is more of an excuse for not considering another way — but he also is saddling Nevada residents with a $200 million loan payment (to pay back a scheme to borrow against insurance premium tax proceeds) and taking tax money earmarked for teachers ($200 million in room taxes) and throwing it into a larger pot.

But the most contradictory item in Gov. Paradox’s budget is that he actually is spending $1 billion more than the conservative economic forum projected, a liberal 20 percent increase. But because he is playing games with the budget books, it doesn’t show up that way.

Only about half a billion is in the general fund through budget necromancy, with the insurance premium and room tax shifts 80 percent of the total. The other half-billion comes from a clever pilfering of $425 million from local school districts — most of it from Clark County — to offset what ordinarily would be a state obligation.

Gov. Paradox also “saves” the state money by those health and human service cuts but also by putting a burden on the counties, especially the one he doesn’t live in. As one knowledgeable Clark County insider confided: “It is worse than Gibbons. It’s a wholesale shift of costs, or dumping of programs altogether.”

Sandoval is a master of the euphemism as he papered over what he is really doing by talking about “revenue reallocations” and “county participation.” Orwell would be proud.

It has always been thus. Governors, abetted by lawmakers, balance budgets with various balms when surgery is called for. In the wake of the speech, Democratic leaders lashed the plan, with Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford saying it would “dismantle public education.”

But neither of them has any alternative, even thought they clearly want to find a way to infuse hundreds of millions or more into the budget. They hope by having hearings and town halls and with grass roots activism from teachers and the like they can build public confidence. I am sure they are worried about being labeled “tax-and-spenders” by the conservative attack dogs, but it’s almost too late already to build support.

Sandoval has won but the state has lost. It is not a sunny paradox.