Fiscal
The impending doom that isn’t
Nevada’s political class has many willing flaks within the media
Words have meanings. It's a simple enough concept, but few people seem to really understand it. Words like "crisis," "devastation" and "disaster" conjure up images of impending doom, but they should be used only when truly merited. Yet, in reference to Nevada's budget and revenue situation, these words are seen almost daily in the news.
Know your role
It’s not the government’s job to create jobs
Have you ever been driving with one of those dreaded backseat drivers? "Turn left! Turn left!" "Wouldn't it have been faster to go through town?" Horrified gasp and foot hitting an imaginary brake as a car turns into the roadway 300 yards in front of you. While backseat drivers' advice might be well intentioned, it drives us crazy.
Why is Culinary alone?
City’s redevelopment agency has been taking money away from teachers, firefighters and police
Much controversy has arisen over the Culinary Union’s recent opposition to the Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency. City officials are claiming that the Culinary Union is operating under false pretenses.
Someone’s serving up whoppers
Myth-busting the higher education budget cuts
False statistics have been floating around the subject of Nevada higher education ever since Gov. Gibbons announced his proposed budget. The two biggest distortions come from Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley.
Plenty of waste to swing at
Government-subsidized golf underscores lack of fiscal discipline
Speaker Buckley claimed last week that the governor's proposal to re-direct $79 million from Clark and Washoe County governments to the state general fund could adversely impact the operations of county government in those locales. Apparently, one of the government operations she is trying to protect is government-subsidized golf.
Rolling the Dice on the Taxpayers’ Dime
Nevada's redevelopment agencies spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing private developers, which increases the tax burden on citizens and fosters corruption. There is a better way to encourage redevelopment.
Artificially low tuition retards Nevada higher education
The state—to its detriment—boasts the country’s cheapest tuition
Governor Jim Gibbons' State of the State address and proposed budget provoked a great deal of ire from proponents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The proposed budget would lower funding to the system by $473 million over the next two years. The cuts reportedly prompted NSHE Chancellor Jim Rogers to say, "I would blow my brains out if I thought this was going through." The Chancellor's suicidal tendencies aside, all the fulminations are largely unwarranted.
Consumer choice is better than government choice
Government regulators say, ‘Hello, dummy!’
Are you unable to rationally decide which businesses to patronize? That's what Silver State politicians and bureaucrats believe. Nevada state government currently regulates a broad spectrum of private industries—among others: real estate, insurance...
Welcome to the long run
Keynesian economics have been the downfall of American policymaking.
The American shift to Keynesianism began in the 1930s, and lawmakers based much of the New Deal on it. Keynesian economists advocate government manipulation of the market through monetary policy in order to "ensure" economic stability and full employment. Understanding the Keynesian mindset is essential to understanding current American policymaking.
Government: A different animal
The ‘economies of scale' model doesn't apply.
A recent op-ed by Dr. Elliott Parker, an economist at the University of Nevada, Reno, no doubt had Nevada's big government spenders salivating. According to Dr. Parker, Nevada's revenue problems result from low taxes, not from high spending levels. His argument relies on the fact that Nevada has a relatively small bureaucracy, which he claims ranks as the smallest in the country in terms of percentage of the state's population.
