Fiscal
The spending problem
Each time we hear about budget projections, the news is worse. The state is taking in less revenue, so that means more budget cuts. For the big-spending crowd, the response to this news is to call for tax increases. But the reality is that Nevada's budget revenue problem has little to do with either revenue or the tax structure.
Read moreImaginary budget cuts
The Economic Forum has released its revenue projections, and the worst-case scenario posits an approximately $200 million decrease over the next biennium. Once again, calls for raising taxes have ensued. And once again, NPRI must remind taxpayers that our budgetary shortfall is the direct result of fiscal mismanagement.
Funding failure
The Reno Gazette-Journal published an article detailing a recently released report, by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, which claims that Nevada needs to boost its higher education spending in order to improve its economy.
Don't play with fire
This weekend, a commentary by Geoffrey Lawrence, a fiscal policy analyst at NPRI, appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, criticizing the ridiculously over-the-top pay of Clark County firemen. Fortunately for the firemen, their PR department has done a good job of convincing many people that they, like teachers and police officers, are sacrosanct entities and beyond human criticism.
Solving Nevada's budget shortfall
Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers has outlined his plan for increasing government revenue. He proposes a mixture of raising fees, raising taxes, borrowing and begging.
If you give the government $1
If you give a government official $1, he'll want to start a new program. After starting a new program, he'll have to find a new problem. After finding a new problem, he'll want a bigger building. Before constructing that bigger building, he'll want a bond to pay for it. After bonding and construction, he'll want to hire people to fill the building. After hiring people to fill the building, he'll ask you for another dollar to pay the staff.
If it's not broken, pretend it is
It has once again been made very clear that the "Big Three" among Nevada's tax-hike crowd – the Las Vegas Sun, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley and incoming Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford – believe that Nevada's tax revenue system is "broken."
Bailing them out...again
After the Big Three automakers received a $25 billion bailout in September, GM and Ford are now coming back to the federal trough to ask for another $50 billion. That is more money than the government spends on the national food stamp program.
What will Republicans become?
In what is now a seemingly prophetic quip, political humorist P.J. O'Rourke once said, "The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."
Laissez journalism
Deregulation, laissez-faire economy, free market failure – all myths, and here is why.
