Geoffrey Lawrence
Playing with the PERS
Lawmakers should not seek to influence investment decisions
Constitutional provisions prohibit the Nevada Legislature from dictating how money in the Public Employees' Retirement System is invested. However, in the final days of the recent legislative session, state lawmakers passed a law attempting to do exactly that.
Cap-and-trade conflicts with Nevada’s mandates
State renewable portfolio standard incompatible with 'market-based' scheme
Last week the U.S. House of Representatives passed the 1,200-page Waxman-Markey "American Clean Energy and Security Act" to impose new taxes on energy use. The bill is a cap-and-trade scheme that would artificially limit the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted by energy users from the combustion of fossil fuels. The bill would essentially create an energy rationing scheme that would require energy producers to acquire costly ration coupons for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit.
Raising the minimum unemployment rate
Minimum wage hike will penalize those it supposedly is intended to benefit
This is a time of serious economic recession in Nevada. Out of every 100 workers in the Silver State, 11.3 are currently unemployed. Yet, the federal government appears to think that is not enough and is driving for a change that will wind up putting even more people out of work. In order to comply with a forthcoming hike in the federal minimum wage rate, the State of Nevada will raise its official minimum wage on July 1 from $5.85 to $6.55 for businesses that provide approved health benefits and from $6.85 to $7.55 for businesses that do not.
Support for tax hikes relies on economic fallacies
Spending restraint was always the superior option
Economists frequently disagree with each other on nearly every issue. Often, it seems there are nearly as many economic paradigms as there are economists. Yet most economists can be characterized as belonging to one of the major schools of economic thought — whether Austrian, monetarist, Keynesian or Marxist. A recent article by Elliott Parker of the University of Nevada, Reno, in which he advocates for increases in state taxes and government spending, places him neatly in the Keynesian mold.
What rule of law?
Legislator signals intent to circumvent the Nevada Constitution
Arguments that the U.S. Constitution is a "living" document have always been intriguing. The expression "Living Constitution" has often been invoked to justify activist jurisprudence by alleging that the meanings of the Constitution's words change over time. Just coincidentally, the changes in meaning always appear to align precisely with the personal viewpoints that judicial activists want imposed on society — even when those viewpoints directly conflict with the Constitution's formerly established meaning.
