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By Anjeanette Damon (contact) 
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 | 1:55 a.m.
Kelvin Atkinson
Brian Sandoval
Sun archives
- Democrats vote for $250 million in budget cuts (5-24-2011)
- Democrats' proposed budget compromise includes $250 million in cuts (5-24-2011)
- Assembly Democratic caucus melts down as budget negotiations come to a halt (5-24-2011)
- Democrats admit they won’t get taxes, will start cutting funding they had tried to add to Sandoval’s budget (5-23-2011)
- Lawmakers ask: Where is the opposition to the tax increase? (5-14-2011)
- Democrats introduce bills to tax services and business revenue (5-11-2011)
- Democrats on path to force Sandoval to veto education funding (5-10-2011)
- Democrats out to build support for alternative to governor’s budget plan (5-5-2011)
- Sandoval pushes for budget with reduced cuts (5-3-2011)
- State revenue forecasters to project an additional $72 million to offset budget hole (4-26-2011)
- Senate Republicans refuse to play ball on budget test votes (4-25-2011)
- Shelley Berkley admonishes Nevada lawmakers not to gut education (4-20-2011)
- First public budget debate before full Assembly ends in predictable stalemate (4-20-2011)
- New style of budgeting — probably not a new result (4-17-2011)
- Democrats take budget fight out of money committees, bring it to the floors of the Assembly and Senate (4-11-2011)
- Raggio-style deal-making a no-go this time (4-3-2011)
- Horsford doggedly attacks Sandoval’s budget cuts (3-29-2011)
- Horsford to lawmakers: ‘Talk about our revenue needs’ (3-28-2011)
- Brian Sandoval proposes budget fix; Democrats continue to hammer spending plan (3-28-2011)
- Republicans issue list of demands to be met before they'll talk taxes (3-3-2011)
CARSON CITY — Even to a casual observer it would have been obvious — just from pure body language, that the Republicans came out ahead in the flurry of last-minute budget negotiations Tuesday morning.
Gov. Brian Sandoval left a meeting with legislative Republicans loose and relaxed, chatting with reporters about his optimism that his budget will make it through the Legislature.
The Republican lawmakers in the meeting restated their support for the governor’s budget and rolled their eyes at the difficulties Democrats were having. “It’s easy being in the minority,” one Republican senator quipped.
The Democrats, meanwhile, scattered through the building in turmoil. Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, in tears, complained to a lobbyist outside the building that he couldn’t support what his leadership was asking him to.
“They can’t tell me to vote for something I don’t like and then tell me I have five minutes to make up my mind,” Atkinson said after Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, told his caucus of the cuts they would have to accept as part of a deal he was working out with Republicans.
The meeting came just 12 hours after Oceguera broke the news to his caucus that the ambitious tax plan he had crafted with Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, was dead. That plan, which was supposed to not only save the state from the deep cuts to education and social services proposed by Sandoval but provide a more stable revenue footing, had kept alive the hopes of the Democratic caucuses.
They spent hours hearing testimony on plans to create a services tax and a margin tax on business revenue. They developed arguments for the funding they believe is needed to prevent painful cuts. And they promised constituents that they were doing all they could to pass an alternative to Sandoval’s budget.
But Tuesday morning, they were asked to go into a joint money committee meeting and vote for cuts, to get lawmakers a budget without the tax increases. They were crestfallen.
“They shot too high,” one observer said of Democratic leaders. “I don’t know how they bring their caucus back down now.”
The fallout included a near meltdown by the Assembly Democrats. Ten of the 26 are freshmen, who are experiencing for the first time the brutality of budget negotiations during which idealism often falls prey to reality.
Several, along with some veteran lawmakers including Atkinson, revolted.
Atkinson, a key vote on the money committee needed for Democrats to make the cuts they had planned Tuesday morning, outright refused to back the deal.
Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, D-Las Vegas, an ambitious freshman, worked with others to rally a bloc of freshmen for a last-ditch effort to come up with a deal where the leadership had failed.
“Every session there’s been a big blowup,” Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said. “The difference this session is you have so many freshmen that they can form a more powerful bloc.”
The division in the Assembly caucus was foreshadowed earlier in the session when nine Democrats voted against Oceguera’s signature education reform bill.
The rift in the Democratic caucus forced a daylong postponement of the joint money committee meeting.
Oceguera and other leaders put a hold on budget negotiations as well, hoping to give members time to digest the death of the tax proposal and allow cooler heads to prevail.
“Everyone needs to take a deep breath,” Speaker Pro Tem Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said. “We went for a couple walks. We just have to keep talking. People are tired, frustrated. We all want to save the state. It’s really just about talking to people.”
Veteran lobbyist Greg Ferraro characterized the rift as typical of end-of-session budget negotiations.
“With 13 days to go, sometimes things have to fall apart before they can move forward,” he said.
By the end of the day, with emotions calmed, Democrats rescheduled their money committee meeting, plowing forward with the cuts.
But as Democrats try to piece themselves back together and negotiate again with Republicans, Sandoval calmly waits.
His senior staff is reworking the $6.3 billion budget, perhaps piecing together a small amount of additional revenue and looking for ways to address the top concerns of their opponents.
“We are still making adjustments within the budget,” Sandoval’s Chief of Staff Heidi Gansert said.
And the closer Democrats get to a Saturday deadline to forge agreement on an alternative to Sandoval’s budget, the less their chances of success.
“They have a balanced budget that they can adopt right now,” Sandoval reminded reporters. “I am optimistic. That’s what I’ve been saying from the first day.”
The taxes proposed by Horsford and fellow Democrats would be have chased new and existing businesses from the State. I have business clients who are expanding here in Nevada. The reason is our excellent tax climate. A tax on services would have driven them to Texas or some other State. Fortunately we have a governor who understands a thing or two about taxes. Thank you Governor Sandoval.
The next time Democrats want to push for a big tax increase then they should nominate a person who advocates for a big tax increase.
This time around they nominated a person who promised not to raise taxes and he got crushed by a person who also promised not to raise taxes.
Nominate a person who is promising to raise taxes big time and then when that nominee wins then he/she will have the will of the people behind them.
If you believe in big tax increases then give money, support and your votes to people who also proudly believe in big tax increases in public.
Things can get a bit testy when your running out of money at the same time your trying to pay off constituencies.
@NVFisherman. How do your business clients feel about coming to a state with the worst education system in the country that will most likely be made worse by the funding cuts in the Sandoval budget? Do those businesses think that they will find an educated work force?
From 2010 to 2011, the Cortez Hill Gold Mine in Nevada produced a profit of over 1.5 BILLION for Barrick Mining. They will pay less than 50 MILLION in taxes. Those figures came from a power point given at the Barrick Annual Meeting.
When will the Democrats realize that their days of largess at the expense of the taxpayers are over? The States are broke, the nation is broke and the die-hard liberals are still living in their foggy past of deficit spending and punitive taxation, all the way from DC down to City Hall.
Kudos to Governor Sandoval for staying the course of trying to put the economy of our beloved Silver State back on solid footing.
hey oceguera...
hey horsford...
NOT IMPRESSED!!!!
you have a chance to destroy our fraudulent phony governor...
absolutely destroy that maggot...
the public supports funding education...
the public is willing to pay taxes to fund education...
and yet governor "my kids don't look hispanic" is intent on inflicting irreparable harm on the innocent children of the very state he serves...
and you frickin clowns can't seem to get off of go...
DESTROY SANDOVAL!!!
you have the weapons on you this very moment...
tell the public how governor "my kids don't look hispanic" is just using our kids as resume fodder...
how he could frickin care less about our kids...
about how he is a unr grad who now seems to enjoy destroying unr...
get your @$$es to work...
and...
DESTROY GOVERNOR "MY KIDS DON'T LOOK HISPANIC"...
BRIAN SANDOVAL IS A COMPLETE NAD TOTAL FRAUD!!!
to our hispanic friends...
brian sandoval is a coconut...
a complete and total coconut...
he could frickin care less about you...
he looks down on you...
you are losers to him...
you realize that...
right???
The Democrats would rather see programs like Medicare,Medicaid and Social Security go broke rather than fix them.
Of coarse the republicans are relaxed. They are dealing with a bunch of tax a spend politicians that have a loosing hand. Their strategy is poor. Their message is flawed. Their actions are not based on the reality of the earthly relm. Maybe they should go spend some time with the hobbits.
Hey, Stivers...
maybe you should spend some time with a teacher.
People do tend to be happiest when they are most ignorant. Therefore, Republicans and conservatives in general are the happiest people on Earth.
The dumbing down of Nevader...
We've hit a HOME RUN for our KIDS...
NOOOO TAXUS!!!!
THANK YOU, GOV'NER B.S.!!!
All the TeaNuts, from Almond to Filbert to the RockNut, weigh in with "TeaTalk, Nevader Style"...
"The Democrats would rather see programs like Medicare,Medicaid and Social Security go broke rather than fix them."
"The States are broke, the nation is broke and the die-hard liberals are still living in their foggy past of deficit spending and punitive taxation"
"Things can get a bit testy when your running out of money at the same time your trying to pay off constituencies."
"if you believe in big tax increases then give money, support and your votes to people who also proudly believe in big tax increases in public." (?)
"The taxes proposed by Horsford and fellow Democrats would be have chased new and existing businesses from the State."
WELL DONE, TeaNuts!
Just like they scripted it for ya... Well done INDEED!
NO SENSE + NO CENTS = NONSENSE.
Only in politics is the failure to increase a budget by $900,000,000 considered a "cut".
Lets see, there are 2.6M people living in NV, and the collected tax revenue is $6B. That's $2,307 per person. And you can't properly run the state on that? Seriously?
hey kelvin...
i respect you sir...
Have a talk with your children...
"Well, kiddo's, you lost today. The big people up in Carson City have decided it's OKAY to de-fund your Public Education. That means bad things for your school. But don't worry! You really don't NEED to be 'educated', per-se... you can become any kind of IGNORANT FOOL you want! This IS America, after all! And, LUCKY FOR YOU, we live in a VERY IGNORANT PLACE! This is the 'Land Of Opportunity' for ignorant, uneducated workers!
I know 4 teachers here in town. 2 of them are stupid. Can't believe they ever graduated high school much less made it this far in life without someone thinning the pool.
the other two are very articulate caring people that truly care about the kids and probably do a very good job.
Too bad both of them are young teachers and will probably loose thier jobs because their union says seniority is king. The school system as it is here is doomed to fail. The kids were stupid when they were flush with cash.
Funding is not the problem!
hey stivers...
answer me this...
how can you say funding is not the problem when nevada always rank near the bottom in amount spent per student???
hmmm???
and...
how the hell can students learn when there are 50 kids in the classroom???
hmmm???
by the way...
do you wear big red floppy shoes???
I think someone is full of B O L O G N A!!!
Stop over funding K-12 and higher ed. Teacher colleges recruit from the lower half of the class so we get these results--many teachers who can't do anything else and they think they are "educated." Teachers try to say they are professionals but THEY DON'T BEHAVE LIKE PROFESSIONALS. Taxpayers are TIRED OF PAYING FOR WORLD CLASS EDUCATION AND GETTING THIRD WORLD RESULTS.
@Birdiedreamin- If teachers can't handle an increase in class size of three students in elementary schools and two students in high schools then we have a serious problem! A 5% staff reduction doesn't cause the calamity you suggest. Go whine to someone who cares.
Stivers:
Anyone who writes "of coarse" does not get to judge the intelligence of others. That is more than a spelling error. Homophone confusions demonstrate a fundamental lack of literacy.
--Idioms
32. of course,
a. certainly; definitely: Of course I'll come to the party.
Your welcome - or is it you're welcome?
Do you know for sure?
I truly wonder what scares the Democrats more about passing the Governor's budget: that their doomsday predictions will come true? Or that they won't?
Me thinks that the real terror is the thought that (gasp!) life will go on in a Nevada that spends pretty much what it spent a couple years ago. And that having government employees share in the a post-housing-bubble-bust adjustment to wages and benefits (but at a much less severe level than the private sector) will not transform Nevada into Haiti.
Ask the failed rapture-predicting preacher what happens to credibility when the day of judgment does not arrive as advertised. That has got to be a fear that keeps our demagogues night-sweating in their PJs. .
Of course, this only introduces more perverse incentives into a government-employment scheme that already contains dangerous levels of perverse incentives. And when the demagogues have already showed a gleeful willingness to use the poor, the ill, and our children as human shields to defend their own financial interests, all bets are off on what manufactured catastrophe might lurk behind the curtain.
We shall see.
I can't stand people saying that funding isn't the problem with education. The reality is that with Sandoval's budget we'll have 45 kids in HS classes and up to 35 in 5th grade rooms. The only result of these increased class-sizes will be more dropouts and fewer companies moving to Nevada because we have devalued education. Look at the Bay Area and despite very high taxes high tech companies are based there...why? A VERY EDUCATED WORKFORCE with world-class universities. If low taxes were the answer then Nevada would have some of the lowest unemployment in the country. Give up your No New Taxes garbage as it is simply selfishness at the cost of our children.
No one has addressed that even when education here is fully funded the kids still performed poorly. All i here about is funding and class sizes. When the class sizes were small...poor performance...fully funded...poor performance.
Good money after bad. The program sucks. Sure if you make the classes bigger in a terrible program it will get worse. No argument here. My problem is why put good money after bad.
@Hugapug- In argument jargon, your presenting a false choice and a non sequitor. Increasing class sizes by three students in elementary schools and two students in high schools does not correlate to fewer companies moving to Nevada. According to Governor Rick Perry of Texas, his state is leading the nation in job creation due to "low taxes, reasonable and predictable regulatory climate, fair legal system, and skilled workforce". Notice that he didn't say a "highly educated workforce" simply because most jobs do not require a college degree. Regarding the Bay area and high tech jobs, Washington State and Austin, Texas have start-up companies(Microsoft & Dell,etc) that act as anchors that brought high tech jobs and related high-tech businesses and suppliers followed. The high tech sector tends to cluster and these sectors tend to develop in larger populated areas and states. For example; Washington state is 13th in population and 14th in GDP. California = 1st and 1st. Texas= 2nd/2nd. Nevada by the way is 35th/32nd. A welcome sight would be to see the next Microsoft or Dell start-up here then have high tech business growth follow but to lure high tech businesses away from any of the states mentioned would be a hard sell and you would need to offer tax incentives/abatements to these companies which many in your field apparently are against.
" A welcome sight would be to see the next Microsoft or Dell start-up here then have high tech business growth follow but to lure high tech businesses away from any of the states mentioned would be a hard sell and you would need to offer tax incentives/abatements to these companies which many in your field apparently are against."
Ha ha ha ha ha!!!
Ho ho ho ho ho!!!
He he he he he!!!
Thanks for the KNEE SLAPPER, EH122...
Funny, funny stuff!
HA!
WHEW!
That WAS a JOKE, right???
Raise taxes on mining.
Get a team of attorneys to sue over education, prison funding, health and safety funding. Do fold to this GOVO.2
I don't why people here are whining.
You had a Democratic primary for Gov.
You did not nominate a person who promised to raise taxes.
You nominated a person who promised NOT to raise taxes.
That person lost to another person who also promised NOT to raise taxes.
So your party nominated an anti-tax guy? Why are you now whining??????????????????????????
Pssssss.....I tell you a little secret. Next time, get a guy/gal to run for office that promises to raise taxes.
Yes, raise those taxes and maybe we can have financial problems like Illinois.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis...
"Raise taxes on mining."
Good idea. I can't wait for those new taxes to start rolling in in 6 years, after (if) the Nev. Constitution is amended to allow it.
What's your other brilliant solution for new taxes for the next two years? A lottery? A state income tax?
I don't know what is worse. The fact that supposedly informed people are trying to gin up political support by beating the drum for new (but unconstitutional) mining taxes? Or that people are falling for it?
@JudgeN. The Constitution may take some time to amend, but the state law on what deductions are allowable can be easily changed, and would result in almost immediate increase in revenue. The mining association president has admitted that some of the deductions that they applied might not be legal. The state taxation director resigned earlier this year after telling the Legislature that he didn't have any auditors trained to check the mining returns.
Tanker. Ur right. Sandovol already fixed that problem and has had someone going through the deductions. Too bad even the dems dream bill didn't tackle minning just everyone else. Where is the bill from the dems who control both houses in the state to start the ball rolling on taxing those mine companies I wonder?
Think you'll be waiting a long time on that one. Wonder what Dirty Harry would say about that?
@Tanker:
But if those deductions that mining has claimed are generally available to all companies, closing those deductions for mining only will then raise serious Nevada and U.S Constitutional questions. It is very hard to target a single industry for taxes and then justify it in court.
Perhaps there is some special deductions for mining that could get be closed. But it is hard to see how it will result in the amounts of money that people toss around when discussing mining. Plus, it is hard to see how there is any more to do now than what the Governor has already done.
Its time for the people of this state to call their legislator at 1-800-978-2878 and demand that the foreign mining corporations pay their fair share in taxes. So many of their expenses are written off that its not fair to the citizens of this state. Nevada's working families are losing their jobs due to the efforts of Republicans who want to make sure that the taxes these families pay go straight into the pockets of Canadian and European corporations who take our gold, silver, and money back to their lands at a net deficit to us. Call today and demand that their taxes be raised instead of what republicans are planning-raising taxes on Nevada's working families!!
I have a nightmare every night. I see Nevada in 5 years. The higher education system is destroyed, as well as K-12. The K-12 classrooms are filled with 50+ students because CCSD can't hire teachers because no teacher will move to Nevada, and the qualified substitute teachers aren't enough to fill all the vacancies. Schools are closed and standing empty. Crime rates are jumping and the visitation to the strip has dropped to record low levels. No high tech businesses have moved to Nevada and in fact, businesses are leaving because they can't find qualified workers and anybody who is qualified won't come to Nevada. Unemployment is Nevada is triple the national rate, which has dropped as the recovery has taken hold. All along the strip, casinos are closing towers. The long shuttered construction projects are still waiting for completion, and more and more strip malls are empty of stores. The foreclosure rate has doubled as more and more people lose jobs or just walk away. In some blocks, the number of vacant homes outnumber the occupied ones. The population of Las Vegas has dropped by half as people leave to search for jobs. Is it a nightmare or will it become reality? I am afraid that we are well on our way to finding out, and that makes me terrified for this is my home, my children's home and my grandchildren's home. Is this the future you want for your state and city? Because if it is, you are well on your way to getting it, be careful what you wish for, you may get it. And my fellow Nevadans once you get it, it may almost impossible to fix.
Who knows the long term impact of these cuts? Will our best and our brightest leave the state never to return? How will we attract the doctors, the engineers, the leaders we need to make the state of Nevada one of the top states in the country? How do we turn around the poor track record on graduation rates, raising test scores? Is the answer increasing class size, and driving away our best and youngest teachers? Compare the test results and graduation rates from the smaller schools in the rural counties to the rates in CCSD and Washoe County. Does the data suggest that smaller class sizes and smaller schools work better than larger? Then why are we moving away from that model. Cutting expenditures without raising revenue is not the answer. You must have a balanced approach, and every day, ask yourself the same question that every teacher asks "Is it right for kids? If it is, then do it."