Budget
The same results, twice the cost
Only in government
The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) has proposed covering Nevada's budget shortfall by raising $1.2 billion in new taxes per year (or $2.4 billion in new taxes per biennium). One of the assertions PLAN makes to justify the tax hikes is that the money is needed to spend on Nevada's public education system. Undoubtedly, Nevada's education system needs improving. But it's extremely unlikely that spending even more money on our current approach to educating children will lead to any real improvement.
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$150 million less in revenue=34% cut for Nevada??
The real numbers behind the state's budget shortfall
Earlier this summer, reports and news articles from across Nevada told us that the state had already "cut to the bone" and that nothing more could be cut. More cuts would be devastating and would roll back our services to Stone Age levels. Back then, the state was looking at 14 percent cuts.
NPRI on TV; Update: Video added
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Updated: Video Added
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Pay attention to those facts behind the stats
Taking a closer look at tax and spend rankings
The big-spending crowd in Nevada continues to base its arguments on the assumption that the way to measure government efficiency is to focus on inputs - how many dollars we channel into government. But how much we fund government isn't a performance measure.
You gotta spend money to waste money
Las Vegas CityLife recently printed an article on how to produce $1 billion in revenue for the state. Most of it would result from legalizing certain industries like prostitution, online gambling, marijuana and gay marriage. But what kind of philosophy justifies legalizing something just for the sake of taxing it?
Goal: Actually educate children
The State of Nevada Controller's Office released its "Report to the Citizens" on Tuesday, and beyond the obvious (Nevada spent more money in FY2008 than in FY2007 despite the recession), what are most interesting are the "Performance Measures" Controller Kim Wallin reports.
Mythbusting economies of scale
Dr. Elliot Parker, an economist at the University of Nevada, Reno, has written a memo (in addition to two newspaper columns) to Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers on Nevada's budget, giving reasons why Nevada needs to raise taxes. NPRI has been researching the validity of his claims, and we have already made several counterpoints.
The untenable nature of NV state employee pay raises
The ongoing recession has drawn attention recently to the lavish pay raises enjoyed by Nevada's state government workers. However, what has been lost on many observers is that the pay structure for state workers suffers from a systemic problem. Pay raises for state workers are far out of line with what workers in the private sector earn even during periods of robust economic growth.
