Sandoval: 'We're only going to spend the money we have.'
One of the most important takeaways from Gov. Brian Sandoval's interview on "Face to Face" with Jon Ralston is this comment at 1:30.
(Update: The embedded video is crashing the site. You can view the video here. You may have to scroll through some old episodes. Look for Face to Face block 2 - 01/07)
[Making a pitch to a potential business looking to move to Nevada]
Sandoval: Unlike other states, we're taking the prudent approach, which is we're only going to spend the money that we have.
Our Economic Forum in our state has said we have $5.33 billion to spend. We're going to stick to that. We're not going to tax you.
You're leaving a state that has just increased taxes. You're leaving a state that's been, [where] you've been over-regulated. You should come to the state of Nevada where you will have a stable tax policy, where you'll have a stable business environment...
As part of Gov. Sandoval's commitment to making Nevada more business-friendly, his first executive order was a one-year freeze of new regulations [PDF].
Sandoval's comment on the budget gets right to heart of the tax-and-spend debate. As NPRI has noted previously, controlling taxes means controlling spending, and many of Nevada's current budget problems are the result of the per-capita, inflation-adjusted, 30 percent spending increase the Legislature passed in 2005 (p. 6).
Public comments are no guarantee that Gov. Sandoval will present a $5.33 billion budget or that he'll stick with his no-new-taxes promise, but he's certainly making all the right arguments.
