Patrick R. Gibbons
Why higher education isn't as bad off as they want you to believe
Week after week, Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers has been telling us how important higher education is, and how he needs more money to fund the system "properly." Ultimately, what he got for his efforts was a more than 30 percent reduction in appropriations from Gov. Gibbons' proposed budget. Needless to say, the chancellor is not happy. But is NSHE really as bad off as some would have us believe?
Back-sliding from the abacus
As the world becomes more efficient, government should, too.
The Silver State's alleged $2.3 billion shortfall has many Nevadans worried. Democrat and Republican politicians alike seem poised to address the shortfall by raising taxes. But several important questions need to be asked. First, that $2.3 billion figure: Where in the world does it come from?
Dissecting Budget Numbers
Many people were no doubt surprised when Gov. Gibbons, in his State of the State address, proposed spending $17.3 billion for the 2009-2011 budget, as the most commonly heard predictions put the expected biennial budget in the neighborhood of $6 billion. The confusion stems from a common misunderstanding that the "general fund" is the same thing as "the budget." In reality, the general fund makes up only about 35 percent of...
The same results, twice the cost
Only in government
The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) has proposed covering Nevada's budget shortfall by raising $1.2 billion in new taxes per year (or $2.4 billion in new taxes per biennium). One of the assertions PLAN makes to justify the tax hikes is that the money is needed to spend on Nevada's public education system. Undoubtedly, Nevada's education system needs improving. But it's extremely unlikely that spending even more money on our current approach to educating children will lead to any real improvement.
Teaching Content is Teaching Reading
43 percent of Nevada's fourth-grade students can't read at grade level . And that is after we've spent over $40,000 educating each of them. Professor Daniel Willingham, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, thinks there is a better way than what we've been doing. And he's got a video...
$150 million less in revenue=34% cut for Nevada??
The real numbers behind the state's budget shortfall
Earlier this summer, reports and news articles from across Nevada told us that the state had already "cut to the bone" and that nothing more could be cut. More cuts would be devastating and would roll back our services to Stone Age levels. Back then, the state was looking at 14 percent cuts.
Students, scholarhips, and saving tax dollars (in Florida)
One of Florida's best and most effective parental choice programs has been Step Up for Students, a corporate tuition scholarship program for low-income children. The corporate tuition scholarship allows corporations in Florida to make tax-deductible contributions to organizations that provide scholarships to low-income children to attend private schools or out-of-district public schools.
Pay attention to those facts behind the stats
Taking a closer look at tax and spend rankings
The big-spending crowd in Nevada continues to base its arguments on the assumption that the way to measure government efficiency is to focus on inputs - how many dollars we channel into government. But how much we fund government isn't a performance measure.
You gotta spend money to waste money
Las Vegas CityLife recently printed an article on how to produce $1 billion in revenue for the state. Most of it would result from legalizing certain industries like prostitution, online gambling, marijuana and gay marriage. But what kind of philosophy justifies legalizing something just for the sake of taxing it?
Goal: Actually educate children
The State of Nevada Controller's Office released its "Report to the Citizens" on Tuesday, and beyond the obvious (Nevada spent more money in FY2008 than in FY2007 despite the recession), what are most interesting are the "Performance Measures" Controller Kim Wallin reports.
