Recent Work

Broken Compact

The Hollowing-Out of Nevada Statehood

Before Nevada joined the Union in 1864, the U.S. Congress explicitly promised more than two dozen times that the new state would be on an equal footing with the original states.

That promise, however, was not kept.

Today, as this report’s cover illustrates, only 13 percent of Nevada’s surface is available to provide the state with a tax base for the funding of services. In some counties — examples are Mineral, Nye and White Pine — the tax base is virtually nonexistent, at 4 percent or less.

Behind this problem is congressional bad faith — the breaking of a commitment to new states, a commitment even older than the U.S. Constitution: that the federal government would facilitate the settling of new states by selling or giving away unappropriated land and not keeping it. Indeed, it was on the basis of this commitment that the original 13 states agreed to the Constitution.

Study: More Medicaid eligibility = fewer workers

Public health care subsidies crowd out private insurance, reduce job-seeking

Government health care subsidies crowd out private insurance and reduce job-seeking.

Environmentalism vs. the environment

Tahoe hostility to development ensured lake pollution for decades

Hostility to development at Lake Tahoe ensured lake pollution for decades.

Feds' war on Western ranchers' water rights takes a body blow

Judge refers BLM, USFS officers for potential criminal prosecution, shames DOJ lawyers

Judge refers BLM, USFS officers for potential criminal prosecution and shames DOJ lawyers.

In Tahoe face-off with California, Nevada retreats

Sandoval risks political backlash

Sandoval risks political backlash in signing new agreement.