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December 15, 2004
$700 million and still fleeced by Carson City
It was just a month ago we were told the state was in a surplus situation of more than $700 million. Guess he has already figured out how to spend every dime of that - plus he still believes he needs another $200 million to bridge another gap. Wonder what that's for? Until the legislative session of two years ago I might have wondered what in the heck he was talking about. Then, painfully for each and every non-government employee in the state, he demonstrated an uncanny knack for presenting insignificant and unverified numbers in a most significant manner. When he said the state needed $1 billion in new revenue or else heaven would fall, people would starve and the land would be consumed by a sinkhole, legislators wringed their hands and wondered if they would be able to find such a sum. In the end, he received $833 million, raised a bunch of salaries and benefits for bureaucrats, and we still have (had?) a $700 million surplus. Don't know what there is to spend all this money on, but I'm sure they have figured out a few things. The biggest area requesting more money is, of course, the education establishment and all its venues. From K-12, to the community college system, to the now growing university arena, the total requested represents 52.8 percent of the state budget. And don't forget, in Nye County the schools receive almost one third of your property tax, plus additional funds from the county almost at will. How can such huge amounts be justified you ask? Easy. First of all, there are all the administrators who either start off with or are quickly advanced to salaries in excess of $100,000 annually. Remember the professor who was being paid $109,000 to teach two classes per week? The current request includes a 3 percent per year cost of living raise that would add $172 million dollars to the cost of education forever, and that doesn't even include the resulting increase in retirement benefits. With this same scenario being played across the nation, is it any wonder inflation has once again raised its ominous head? Our governor has also asserted the public schools are expecting as many as 35,000 new students over the next two years. Of course, he doesn't say where all the students will come from, the source of the need, or whether this number even makes sense. But then, it is not his job as chief spender of the public purse to ensure all the requests for funding are true and necessary. It is his job to merely assert the need and then provide the leadership to achieve the goal of providing the service. To be fair, I can't lay all the responsibility for this lavish expenditure of public resources at the feet of the governor alone. Speaker of the Assembly Richard Perkins, who wants to be elected governor after Guinn's term expires, has appointed a former educrat as chair of the education committee for the upcoming legislative session. While I am aware the legislative council bureau has already stated no conflict of interest exists in such cases, even though this chair will be hearing and voting on how to best raise her own retirement benefits as well as those of her friends and colleagues, it still seems to me the Nevada Constitution specifically forbids this practice. Guess the framers of that document understood the principal of not putting the fox in charge of the hen house. I am also certain the good speaker will have no interaction with any proposed legislation dealing with the health and welfare benefits of the law enforcement community or its various umbrella groups. As a matter of fact, since each committee leader he has carefully selected has a special interest in the end result of the legislation brought before them, it would appear the non-government citizens of this great state can look forward to a very heavy-handed fleecing during the next legislative session. There are those out there who remember well the Supreme Court decision nullifying the vote of the people with regards to any increase in taxes by the legislature. Many of you wailed your displeasure with this crass interpretation of the law, but few took action in the succeeding 18 months. It should gladden your heart to know two of the justices who decided not to seek re-election were properly taken care of. They have both been commissioned as senior justices, enabling them to substitute on future Supreme Court cases and also in district court. Of course, they won't be providing this service for free, but no cost was assigned to this perk. How's that for justice? With all of the care and diligence paid to protecting the people, perhaps as governor in two years the Speaker can simply propose doing away with all nepotism and other restrictions on government officials passing laws and regulations specifically benefiting themselves. At least this would be an honest way for the government to tell the people to just sit down, shut-up and pay-up. Little writes from Pahrump. His column, "The Other Side," appears here on Wednesdays. |
