Patrick R. Gibbons
Higher (priced) Education
The Greenspun family, which owns and operates the Las Vegas Sun, has donated $37 million to UNLV to put the family's name on a very expensive building.
Rhee-forming education
Serious education reform is getting some unlikely allies these days. Washington, D.C.'s new school chancellor, Michelle Rhee, has become a no-holds-barred agitator for genuine education reform – starting with the administrators and then the teachers.
Presidential choice
President-elect Barack Obama has chosen to send his children to Sidwell Friends School, the elite private school where Bill Clinton sent his daughter during his presidency – a school that approaches $30,000 per year in tuition.
Funding failure
The Reno Gazette-Journal published an article detailing a recently released report, by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, which claims that Nevada needs to boost its higher education spending in order to improve its economy.
Don't play with fire
This weekend, a commentary by Geoffrey Lawrence, a fiscal policy analyst at NPRI, appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, criticizing the ridiculously over-the-top pay of Clark County firemen. Fortunately for the firemen, their PR department has done a good job of convincing many people that they, like teachers and police officers, are sacrosanct entities and beyond human criticism.
Logical bailout
The Las Vegas Sun laments that if the auto industry goes under, more people will lose their jobs. If more people lose their jobs, then fewer people will come to Las Vegas.
Design flaws
Nevada has a poorly structured regulatory system.
Bob the Decorator faces absurd regulatory barriers. Why? Because Nevada can't allow unregulated interior designers to run amok, as your health and welfare apparently may be threatened if your new bergère doesn't match the color of your La-Z-Boy.
Solving Nevada's budget shortfall
Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers has outlined his plan for increasing government revenue. He proposes a mixture of raising fees, raising taxes, borrowing and begging.
If you give the government $1
If you give a government official $1, he'll want to start a new program. After starting a new program, he'll have to find a new problem. After finding a new problem, he'll want a bigger building. Before constructing that bigger building, he'll want a bond to pay for it. After bonding and construction, he'll want to hire people to fill the building. After hiring people to fill the building, he'll ask you for another dollar to pay the staff.
If it's not broken, pretend it is
It has once again been made very clear that the "Big Three" among Nevada's tax-hike crowd – the Las Vegas Sun, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley and incoming Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford – believe that Nevada's tax revenue system is "broken."
