Fiscal
No Magic Beans
Nevada cannot buy progress in education
Students are back in school now, and pundits, reporters, policy wonks, bureaucrats and politicians are back to debating what the state's budgetary shortfall means for the future of Nevada public education.
New taxes, same old tune
Reasons for more taxes fall flat.
Jon Ralston recently joined the chorus of politicians and pundits calling for a "restructuring" of Nevada's tax code, which, in plain language, means "raising taxes."
Waste, hidden spending and records destruction
Lots of taxpayer money is being spent but not reported.
Further open records requests and audits have revealed that some local governments destroy their intergovernmental lobbying records so quickly that no public account remains to reveal exactly how taxpayer dollars are spent each year.
Be careful with this one
The Tax Foundation’s new study is not a case for tax hikes.
It's easy to imagine the glee with which Nevada's ever-higher-taxes crowd must be greeting a new study from the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation, which found that Silver State residents enjoy the nation's second-lowest state and local tax burden.
The perks of public service
They all add up to a very high cost to taxpayers.
While public employees deserve a quality compensation package, many of them receive excessive pay and perks at taxpayer expense.
Spend, spend again
Our current approach on education ensures we won’t succeed.
The education establishment consistently bemoans Nevada's lower-than-average per-pupil spending on education. Implicit in their constant return to this statistic is a misguided belief that spending more money on education naturally leads to better education results.
When compassion goes bad
Problems with the ADA abound.
The Americans with Disabilities Act is just another government encroachment on property rights that makes us all worse off – including the disabled.
In the red ... from going green
Environmental extremism threatens Nevada's economic health.
Federal laws prohibiting the drilling for fossil fuels punish no state in the union more than Nevada. Not that there is any oil or gas to drill for in the Silver State. It's just that nobody is walking or riding his bike into Las Vegas or Reno to tempt Lady Luck.
Minimum wage and unemployment
An increase in the former causes an increase in the latter.
As Nevada's unemployment rate goes up, one wonders if the voters who said "yes" to a higher minimum wage in the November 2006 election are having second thoughts.
Something for nothing – courtesy of the Federal Reserve
Nevada's been betting on the come.
Las Vegas is a city built on the dream of getting something for nothing. But not only the tourists seek Lady Luck.
