Taxes
Support for tax hikes relies on economic fallacies
Spending restraint was always the superior option
Economists frequently disagree with each other on nearly every issue. Often, it seems there are nearly as many economic paradigms as there are economists. Yet most economists can be characterized as belonging to one of the major schools of economic thought — whether Austrian, monetarist, Keynesian or Marxist. A recent article by Elliott Parker of the University of Nevada, Reno, in which he advocates for increases in state taxes and government spending, places him neatly in the Keynesian mold.
What rule of law?
Legislator signals intent to circumvent the Nevada Constitution
Arguments that the U.S. Constitution is a "living" document have always been intriguing. The expression "Living Constitution" has often been invoked to justify activist jurisprudence by alleging that the meanings of the Constitution's words change over time. Just coincidentally, the changes in meaning always appear to align precisely with the personal viewpoints that judicial activists want imposed on society — even when those viewpoints directly conflict with the Constitution's formerly established meaning.
Are you invisible?
Who are state lawmakers really working for?
Historically, they were called "public servants." In Nevada nowadays, however, government employees increasingly are the public's masters. The servant? Increasingly, it's you. Consider the state Assembly. Of the 28 Democrats making up the two-thirds majority that controls the Nevada Legislature's lower chamber, 20 are current or retired government employees — or make their living from tax dollars the government allocates to their non-profit corporations. That's over 70 percent.
New tax a wrong turn for Nevada
Lawmakers fail to anticipate unintended consequences
Have you, like many Nevadans in the past few years, bought a house that was significantly overvalued when you purchased it? Imagine what the consequences would be if the state legislature tried to prop up the value of your home by declaring, through legislation, that your home is worth at least 95 percent of what you paid for it. Would this attempt at price fixing have any effect on what others are actually willing to pay for the house should you try and sell it?
A slap in the face
Legislature’s new taxes will exacerbate recession
State lawmakers have known for a year that tax revenues were in decline. A year. For a year they have known that they would face tough choices between implementing meaningful reform to control government growth and imposing the largest tax increases ever on a populace that is already reeling from economic recession. Yet, they procrastinated and avoided those choices.
The one-way bet
State budgeting process: Heads they win, tails you lose
Ever made a dream list of all the things you'd like to have? Politicians do this all the time. Unlike the rest of us, however, they then proceed to buy everything on their list — with our money. One way they get away with it is by wielding a boring and dry-sounding accounting term that puts normal people to sleep: "baseline budgeting." When they utter it, people think the politicians are watching spending — when they're actually increasing it.
NPRI's Transparency Project on the LVCVA: May 19, 2009 update
LVCVA vice chair ducks advance payments issue
Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority Vice Chairman Keith Smith is refusing to answer questions about the authority's long-standing policy of advancing millions of dollars in interest-free operating funds to Airwave Productions, an affiliate of the authority's advertising firm, R&R Partners.
ABCs of S-P-E-N-D-I-N-G
Legislators taking the wrong approach
Remember playing with blocks as a child? You had to find the correctly shaped peg to go through the corresponding hole. Most people do this in kindergarten. Our elected officials do it in the Nevada Legislature.
Buckley transparently hypocritical
Speaker abandons a key ‘principle’
Before the current Legislative Session began, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley spent months touring the state and promoting four "governing principles that must guide the State Legislature in achieving the mission." One of those principles was: "transparency." Unfortunately, "was" has become the key word in that sentence. Since leaving the town-hall circuit for Carson City, Buckley seems to have forgotten all about transparency.
Your move, Carson
Alternative budget shows tax hikes are unnecessary
For months we've heard legislators, lobbyists and union officials decrying the impact that the economic downturn might have on their wallets and not ours. In order to prop up government spending, many legislators have spent the past few months privately, but not publicly, discussing a range of ideas for increasing taxes on families in Nevada who are already reeling from the impact of economic recession.
