Taxes
NPRI's Transparency Project on the LVCVA
The Nevada Policy Research Institute has made the issue of government transparency a top priority in 2008, as the issue has grown in prominence nationally and as the need for more transparency here Nevada has become clear.
The Bubble Factory
Nevada faces a head-wind of bad monetary policy from Washington, D.C.
There's a simple reason why banks have been so reluctant to loan to other banks. More than anyone, bankers know what banks do. Fractional-reserve banking, after all, is the business of legally lending out money one doesn't have, hoping all the while that large numbers of your depositors never all show up at the same time, demanding their money.
Playing with fire
Getting burned by the firefighter union
Residents of Clark County who want to invest in the future of their children should take away their schoolbooks and buy them a box of matches. Why? Because in Clark County, knowledge of fire and fire suppression is apparently of more value than is knowledge in specialized academic fields such as law.
Mutually assured donations
Back-scratching abounds in Clark County education.
Why is the Clark County School District issuing checks for millions of dollars to Southern Nevada's powerful teacher union? According to purchase and change orders reviewed by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, within the last two years a total of $4.9 million has been approved by CCSD trustees for payment directly to the Clark County Education Association, or to a foundation controlled by the union.
Jobs for the sake of jobs
Failing businesses must be allowed to fail.
Ropchai Premsrirut, former assistant professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, explained recently in the Las Vegas Sun how he believes he is doing his part to prevent unemployment – namely, by not quickly ending the hemorrhaging of a money-losing restaurant he recently took over.
Old myths about the New Deal
We must reject the Hoover-Roosevelt approach to economic policy.
Las Vegas Sun publisher Brian Greenspun this week turned his normal column space over to a former assistant professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Ropchai Premsrirut, who focused on creating jobs in a shrinking economy.
That old Trojan Horse
Calls for education spending hikes are based on dubious statistics.
Nevada faces a steadily worsening economy, thanks in no small part to poor federal regulatory policies that are driving up inflation and destroying the value of the American dollar. This problem exacerbates Nevada's already massive budgetary shortfall, which will continue to worsen as the dollar continues to weaken.
Corporate welfare, corruption and the ‘blight' of the poor
The case for reform of Nevada's redevelopment laws
The need for reform of property rights in Nevada is clear. Property rights that are defensible under the rule of law are the very foundation of a market economy. However, property rights in Nevada have eroded due to a set of community redevelopment laws that confer dangerous amounts of power upon local politicians.
Bursting the spending balloon
Budget shortfalls should give hope to Nevadans.
The current financial crisis and related economic downturn are leading to sharply reduced tax revenues across state and local governments in Nevada. While the resulting budget shortfalls are frequently viewed as deplorable, they could be the silver lining of these cloudy times.
The code language is flying again
Nevada's tax-hikers have you in their cross-hairs
Former governor Kenny Guinn – he of the record near-billion tax increase – is beating the drum again for "long-term" state planning. Just what does that really mean? Let's time-travel back to 1998, during Guinn's initial run for governor, when "long-term planning" was one of his frequent talking points.
