Patrick R. Gibbons
NPRI's Recommendations for Cost-Cutting and Reform
In the face of today's fiscal challenges, Nevada policymakers must recognize the need to enact sweeping reforms that transform how state government conducts its business.
Parents want choice
The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice recently conducted a survey in Oregon along with the Cascade Policy Institute, asking parents how they would prefer to see their children educated. The survey found that almost nine out of 10 would prefer something other than a traditional public school.
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.
Mythbusting economies of scale
Dr. Elliot Parker, an economist at the University of Nevada, Reno, has written a memo (in addition to two newspaper columns) to Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers on Nevada's budget, giving reasons why Nevada needs to raise taxes. NPRI has been researching the validity of his claims, and we have already made several counterpoints.
How do you do math?
Still no word – after multiple requests – from the Gibbons administration on how the state is getting the 34 percent budget-cut figure it's been giving the media.
While you were away
The holiday season may bring families together, but sometimes it also takes us away from the world around us. Here is some news you may have missed over the past few days.
Nevada's budget mysteries
Legislators have some important questions to answer.
The more one examines Nevada's budget situation, and listens to the comments coming from policymakers and pundits, the more conflicting information one receives. One newspaper has claimed that general fund revenue is down to $5.6 billion for this biennium, while another claims that number is actually the projection for the next biennium. Some newspapers report a $1.2 billion shortfall, others a $1.5 billion shortfall, and we have even heard claims of $2.5 billion to $4.5 billion shortfalls.
Media pundits still confused
In "Ostriches are isolated" Jon Ralston attacked the Nevada Policy Research Institute for its criticism of how the government and the media both have handled the discussions and coverage of the state budget-cutting issue. We had the temerity to ask how the alleged "34 percent cut" was calculated – a critical question to which we never received an answer.
Ralston Math
In the second phase of Ralston's missive, Ostriches are isolated, he criticizes NPRI's math with some pretty bogus reasoning. On at least three occasions Jon Ralston has claimed that Nevada currently faces a $2.5 billion shortfall. Ironically, it's a claim only he has made.
High quality teachers needed
All 50 states have teacher-certification requirements, the justification being that, in order to determine who is a qualified teacher, prospects must be subjected to a lengthy process of schooling and testing. Typically, certified teachers have completed a degree in education (or have taken upwards of 30 hours of education-related coursework), completed a semester of student teaching and passed several hundred dollars worth of tests (which the would-be teachers usually pay to take).
