Fiscal
The broad-based tax fantasy
Diverse tax codes double likelihood of budget shortfall
The Las Vegas Sun this week highlighted on its front page a recent article from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a left-of-center think tank in Washington, D.C. A March 13 report from the CBPP says Nevada's budget gap for 2010 is 30 percent, the highest in the nation. Not surprisingly, some have taken this to mean that Nevada needs to expand and diversify its tax base. Not so fast.
Forcing you to buy what you don’t want
Governor pushes for higher, hidden energy tax
Gov. Gibbons went before the Senate Committee on Energy, Infrastructure and Transportation on Tuesday to testify on behalf of his administration's bill, SB 395. The bill would, among other things, expand the scope of renewable-energy projects within the state that qualify for tax abatements.
Government failure
Higher tax rates correlate with deteriorating government services
Advocates for big government often try to justify themselves by declaring they're simply trying to cope with instances of "market failure." Thus they rationalize government displacing the free exchange of goods and services between individuals and sabotaging the livelihood and freedom of those individuals.
Helicopter Ben hearts zombies
How to know when the economy is really coming back to life
How soon is the economy here in Nevada — or nationally — going to turn the corner, you ask? When can we expect the tourists and conventioneers to return in the numbers of just a few years ago? Will it be soon, or will it take years?
Smokes and booze for the children
Lawmakers want to make Nevada more dependent on “sins”
Policymakers in Nevada think they have found a taxation scheme analogous to the Keynesian principle of spending — one that encourages a lack of restraint by taxpayers as they pursue their carnal desires.
Enabling Nevada’s boom-bust cycle
Speaker Buckley decries, then exacerbates, the problem
Speaker Buckley has talked for months about how Nevada's government suffers from a boom-bust cycle. She says the boom-bust cycle is caused by flaws in Nevada's tax structure. Since 43 other states are facing budget deficits this biennium, however, the more likely cause is Nevada politicians' unquenchable thirst for increasing government spending at a rate that exceeds the growth of population and inflation.
Spending for spending’s sake
Simply throwing money at education is not the solution
Many believe that increasing per-pupil spending will improve education in Nevada and that Nevada spending per student ranks only 43rd in the nation. These individuals further assume that our public schools' low achievement and ostensibly low spending must be linked.
Setting up the 2011 spending spree
New taxes in 2009 will lead to new programs for 2011
Despite the ravages of recession, Carson City appears to be exuding an air of optimism. The big buzz around the legislature concerns the potential new taxes on Nevadans and all the new government programs those new taxes will allow lawmakers to create, assuming an eventual economic recovery.
LVRDA tries to scam the public
Officials trot out same old indefensible claims
The Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency currently finds itself locked in a court battle with the Culinary Union. The lawsuit is the result of a recent vote by Las Vegas city officials to exclude two referenda items proposed by Culinary from the June ballot.
Greenspan and Bernanke’s war on Nevada
The Fed bears primary responsibility for the housing market collapse
According to the most recent reports, Nevada leads the nation in the rate of homes that are in negative equity, at 55 percent. Nationally, the rate is about 20 percent. The primary reason for this disparity is that growth in Nevada—and in Las Vegas in particular—outpaced growth in the rest of the nation during the peak of the real estate bubble when land values were artificially high.
