A group of nonpartisan Northern Nevada residents, upset with what they say are the state Legislature’s harmful tax increases, will gather Friday in Carson City for the second TEA Party in as many months.The rally is from 3 to 6 p.m., and organizers are asking participants to bring a non-perishable food item as well. Additional details can be found at Anger is Brewing, the website of the group that is organizing the rally.
Organizers for the Anger is Brewing group said they expect about 2,000 people will participate in the peaceful Tax Freedom Day event in the square in front of the Legislative Building. “TEA” stands for “Taxed Enough Already” …
“We want to make the legislature understand that we’re deeply, deeply concerned about what’s happening and what’s going to happen with the budget and the effect it will have on hardworking Nevadans,” event organizer Debbie Landis said.
What you get with government employees, by virtue of these steady jobs, you get risk-averse people. They may be good solid employees, but they may not be very innovative. Safe jobs attract people who want a safe environment.
The idea of paying teachers or social workers high starting salaries seems wishful thinking. But what if long-term pension liabilities could be sharply reduced by forcing those young workers, many or most of whom won’t make the cut after a few years, into a defined contribution plan, say a 401(k) with an employer match? The savings could go to higher salaries.
The Legislature passed a $781 million tax increase and delivered it to Gov. Jim Gibbons on Friday, barely meeting a 5 p.m. deadline and setting the stage for Gibbons' expected veto.Along with the over $200 million room-tax increase legislators have already passed, that's a cool billion dollars in tax increases. And every dollar the government takes is a dollar that could have, should have been spent by private individuals and businesses looking to improve their own welfare. All the record tax increase will do is further prolong and deepen the recession. From the RJ:
After intense negotiations between Republicans and Democrats, the tax package finally came to a vote in the state Senate late Friday afternoon, winning approval by a 17-4 margin. All 12 Democrats plus five Republicans voted for the bill.
"A billion-dollar tax increase in a recession is the worst thing we can do for the American and the Nevada people, and most of all for the hard-working families of this state," Gibbons said. "I intend to veto this bill."Exactly. And the sad thing is that even the politicians who voted for the tax increase know it will hurt Nevada's citizens. Enjoy the hypocrisy revealed by Glenn Cook of the RJ:
"I won't support tax increases -- not when the private sector is losing revenue and losing jobs," Horsford told the Review-Journal's editorial board in September.
"The general fund needs to be managed in a way that doesn't allow growth beyond population growth and inflation."
Horsford, a Las Vegas Democrat, went on to become the Senate's majority leader and one of the Legislature's most important figures in cobbling together the nearly $800 million in tax increases that will allow the state's general fund to grow by about 10 percent, significantly more than the combined rates of population growth and inflation.
"This is not the time to start talking about raising taxes," Raggio, the Reno Republican, said last summer during a bruising Republican primary.
"It is something that we can't even consider."
Raggio didn't merely consider raising taxes -- he worked tirelessly to deliver the Republican votes needed to provide a constitutionally mandated two-thirds supermajority.
That's some mandate for tax hikes. The two men who control the Legislature's upper chamber campaigned in opposition to tax increases and then went about a months-long process of increasing them.
They weren't alone.
"I really have no appetite for raising taxes," Assemblywoman Marilyn Dondero Loop, D-Las Vegas, said during last year's campaign. "Let's look at our spending priorities and be like any other household going over its own budget."
If only households could vote for a bigger budget and the seizure of the money to fund it -- like Dondero Loop did.
"I won't vote for tax increases next session," Assemblyman James Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, said last year. He voted for all of them. Higher sales taxes. Higher payroll taxes. Higher vehicle registration taxes. Higher business license fees.
"There's no appetite for new taxes," Assemblyman Paul Aizley, D-Las Vegas, said before his election last year. Lawmakers got plenty hungry for more of your money, and Aizley was with them in the chow line.
"I don't see increasing taxes as an option," Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, said during the campaign. He eventually saw differently.
Assemblyman Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, said, "I'm not hearing a lot of interest in raising taxes this session." Plenty of interest now -- especially his.
"I can't see the people of Nevada being able to afford tax increases," said Assemblywoman April Mastroluca, D-Henderson. She thinks we can afford it now. She voted for the whole package.
"The economy is the most important issue for my constituents," Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, said last year. "They are losing their jobs or are afraid of losing their jobs." Kihuen allayed their fears -- and improved his job security at the College of Southern Nevada -- by voting for higher taxes…
Among other legislators who opposed tax increases as candidates but voted for them anyway: Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, and Assembly members Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas; Joe Hogan, D-Las Vegas; Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas; and Ellen Spiegel, D-Henderson.
Candidates opposed tax increases last year on the grounds that the economy was too weak to sustain them. The economy has since become even weaker. And now they think tax hikes are OK? The expediency unfolding in Carson City isn't courage -- it's shameful.
Politicians need headlines. And this means they have a deep need to do something ("Sen. Snoot Moves on Widget Crisis!"), even when doing nothing would be the better option. Markets will always deal efficiently with gluts and shortages, but letting the market work doesn't produce favorable headlines and, indeed, often produces the opposite ("Sen. Snoot Fails to Move on Widget Crisis!").And responding to the news that Nevada's unemployment rate reached 10.6 percent, here's our own Sen. Harry Reid releasing a statement to get a headline.
Weve been working hard over the last few months to take steps to create jobs, protect consumers from abusive lending practices and restore consumer confidence. Were just now starting to see signs that this is working. In recent weeks, casino executives have talked about the increase in hotel occupancy rates and a rise in convention bookings. In fact, earlier this month, major corporations including IBM and Southwest Airlines brought thousands of employees to Las Vegas for employee appreciation and business events.Don't worry, Sen. Reid and the other politicians in Washington, D.C., and Carson City are working to solve our problems. Unfortunately, their intervention is what led to the problems in the first place.
While the coming months still present challenges, I will continue fighting to create good-paying jobs by making Nevada the nations renewable energy leader, keep struggling Nevadans in their homes and strengthen the national economy so people can have more money in their pockets to travel to Nevada.
In 1913, for instance, thinking it was being overcharged by the steel companies for armor plate for warships, the federal government decided to build its own plant. It estimated that a plant with a 10,000-ton annual capacity could produce armor plate for only 70% of what the steel companies charged.
When the plant was finally finished, however -- three years after World War I had ended -- it was millions over budget and able to produce armor plate only at twice what the steel companies charged. It produced one batch and then shut down, never to reopen.
But Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said Thursday that he thought the sides were close to a deal, with only two small issues standing in the way of an agreement on public employee benefit and bargaining changes.The only question left is whether the Republicans will defend their anthill — minor reforms in the state's employees retirement system — or give that up as well.
“It sounds like everything is coming together,” said Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas.
Democrats had agreed to dial back pensions and retiree health benefits for new public employees. Firefighter, police, teacher and other public employee unions — some of the party’s key constituencies — gave the legislators heat for bending during negotiations.
Meanwhile, Republicans said their votes on taxes — two are needed to pass a tax package and override a Gibbons veto — were contingent on those changes.
Some Senate Republicans, though, say they'll go along with the higher taxes if Democrats agree to support minor reforms to the state's generous public employee retirement benefits.The reports aren't promising.
Yet the reforms currently being advocated go nowhere near this far. Rather than move all new hires onto a 401(k)-style, defined contribution plan, legislation introduced Tuesday in the Senate requires future employees to put in a few more years before cashing their golden ticket, among other small tweaks. It does next to nothing to shrink those massive unfunded liabilities.
This is the GOP's puny price for going along with massive tax increases.
Oceguera said the tentative agreement does not include a requirement demanded earlier Thursday by Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, that no pensions should be given to public employees before they turn 62.As I've said before, these last few hours will beat anything you'll see at the box office all summer. But with a secret, job-killing, record billion dollar tax increase on the horizon, it looks like this show will end badly for Nevada's businesses and families.
“He may have budged on that,” Oceguera quipped.
Horsford had convened the senators around 2:45 a.m., invoking a rule that trapped them in the chamber and allowed absent members to be tracked down and rounded up. The upper house had been in recess since 11 p.m.Sen. Horsford even tried an "enhanced" negotiating technique.
During the hours of recess, yet another round of closed-door talks seeking accord on a package of tax hikes and public employee benefit reforms had broken down.
Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, called Horsford’s action a “threat.”
“I think it is very inappropriate and imprudent if it’s to hold us hostage here until we cave in,” he said.
Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, got up to leave. "Anyone have a tea cup? I have to use the bathroom."So we've got potential ethical conflicts that no longer exist thanks to a politically motivated rule change, and now this. Oh, the drama. Any bets on what will happen next?
Senate sergeants at arms staff didn't move or respond.
Hardy turned to Horsford. "Can I use the bathroom?"
Horsford said, "I'm just following the rules."
First came the banks and insurance companies. Then the auto industry. Now, with California on the verge of financial collapse, state leaders are demanding an unprecedented federal rescue of their own.They say they need the Obama administration to step in and back billions of dollars in emergency loans. If Washington fails to do so, the state could start running out of cash in July and then would have to stop paying huge amounts of its bills. That, in turn, could set off dangerous ripples throughout the economy, state officials say.This wouldn't be the first time the federal government has given away money to states, either.
The argument is familiar. Just like AIG and General Motors, California says it is too big to fail.
We had a situation in 1932, with America’s first federal welfare program, where we allowed states to come to Washington seeking “their share” of the $300 million in federal aid that Congress made available. The result was that Illinois politicians practically ran to Washington to grab more that $55 million – almost 20 percent – of the national total, while Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Nebraska received nothing. Once we open the federal treasury to states with alleged needs, then some states will rush to Washington with all sorts of needs, real and imagined, and ask for all U. S. taxpayers to contribute.When will it end? If the government stays involved, it won't. Government intervention in the economy keeps growing and growing.
How much better it is for each state to clean up its own problems, as the Constitution requires.
-Sales tax increase of 0.35 percent: $280 million
-Tiered Modified Business Tax rate: $346 million
-Doubling of the business license fee: $61 million
-Changes to governmental services tax on vehicles: $94 million
The core meeting to finalize a tax plan for the coming two years was canceled this morning with neither side willing to give any more.Hmmm. But wait. The Senate version of the Assembly's watered-down PERS reform bill just dropped.
In addition to the ongoing battle over how much of the burden should be carried by sales tax versus the business tax, a separate meeting was still unable to resolve disagreement over changes to employee retirement and benefits.
Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, the top GOP negotiator over benefits changes, left the meeting at one point red faced and muttering under his breath.
Also in that mix are proposed changes to allow collective bargaining for state workers and a business plan to relax prevailing wage requirements on public construction projects.
With nothing to present, the 10 a.m. scheduled Senate Floor Session didn't happen. Neither did the 11 a.m. Assembly Floor Session.
SB427 will slow the rate at which state workers earn their retirement, including police-fire employees, and make younger retirees work longer before they can leave with full retirement benefits. Changes would apply only to public workers hired after Jan. 1, 2010.The changes the Republicans want are the same ones they want in the Assembly bill.
But it’s not a done deal.
Republicans still want more concessions in those two areas. But Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, agreed there is general agreement on the other provisions in the bill.
Among the key provisions is reducing the benefit multiplier to 2.5 percent from 2.67 percent. This change increases to 30 years from 28 years the time it takes for an employee to fully vest in the retirement plan. Republicans said yesterday they would not agree to a multiplier less than 2.35 percent, which increases the vestment period to 32 years.
The bill also increases the retirement ages for police and firefighters as well as state workers. Police and firefighters will need 20 years to retire at 55 instead of 50 and 10 years to retire at 60 instead of 55. State workers will have to work 10 years to retire at 62 instead of 60.
The early retirement penalty also would be increased to 6 percent from 4 percent and the bill includes "anti-spiking" language designed to keep public employees from increasing their pay in their final years.
“If we’re considering raising more revenue, not only should we exempt small businesses from those increases, we should provide them some tax relief,” she said. “These are businesses that employ a handful of people. Raising taxes on them could be the difference between laying people off.”That's right, Buckley said that raising taxes on small businesses could cause layoffs. Note to Speaker Buckley: Many businesses in Nevada — small and big — are suffering. Just last week, the M Resort announced it was going to lay off 5 percent of its workforce. What happens if the MBT doubles for the M Resort? The government will have given M Resort a reason to conduct more layoffs, reduce wages or implement a hiring freeze.
Yesterday, Thomas Mitchell, president of the Nevada Freedom of Information Coalition, held a press conference and called on lawmakers to sign a pledge committing to greater transparency. Video above.
The pledge includes a commitment to pass a "Google" for government that would allow anyone to search government spending and contracts. A similar bill at the federal level was co-sponsored and passed by Sen. Tom Coburn and then-Sen. Barack Obama. Many states are also debating and passing similar bi-partisan "Google" government bills.
The transparency pledge also calls for more openness in legislative deliberations.Mitchell said Nevada legislators showed they understood the concept of open government when they passed the open meeting law.
Well, if legislators believe voters would be upset if their actions were known, that sounds like reason enough to find out. As Mitchell said, they are supposed to be our servants, not our masters.
"They specifically exempted themselves, knowing full well this is a good law," he said.
Mitchell said Nevadans cannot reasonably evaluate their lawmakers without knowledge of what they have done.
"They are not our masters," he said. "They are our servants."
Now, transparency usually isn't controversial ─ outside of Carson City, at least ─ but apparently Jon Ralston either was feeling feisty today or just wanted to take a cheap shot at the competition. No one, many elected officials and lobbyists excepted, is against more openness in government.
So Ralston is calling out Mitchell for publicly supporting something Ralston agrees with? Usually when someone is supporting something I agree with, I'm happy, not infuriated. But that's just me.
And no one had been more critical of the legislative non-process than I over 20 years of covering the special-interest-drenched, faux-deliberative body that has too few bold leaders and too many hapless followers. But rarely have I have been as infuriated as I was this week to see the eleventh-hour stunt put on by some of my media colleagues to try to pressure lawmakers to be more transparent by importuning them to sign a vapid pledge that doesn’t even address what ails the system.
The most interesting thing to note is that Ralston says he supports transparency in general, some of the things in the pledge specifically ─ "there is some good stuff in there about putting government contracts and expenditures online" ─ and even offers suggestions for further ways to increase transparency.
And the pledge isn't vapid. It's a commitment to the principle of transparency, to passing legislation like the "Google" government bill, and to removing the legislative exemption from the open meeting law.
*California's public employee union members protesting for tax increases.We'll say it again: There will be no cuts in the 2009-11 budget -- only more spending increases."So simple even a liberal blogger can understand it." Unfortunately, some of our legislators don't get it. I watched the joint meeting of the Senate and Assembly taxation committees and the chair specifically asked someone giving testimony if the legislature had made cuts — "painful" cuts — unlike what the RJ said. He dutifully agreed.
It's so simple even a liberal blogger can understand it.
The Legislature passed a $5.9 billion, two-year budget in 2005. Lawmakers passed a $6.8 billion budget in 2007, but revenue shortfalls caused by the recession forced lawmakers to modify those spending increases. When the current biennium ends June 30, the state will have spent between $6.2 billion and $6.3 billion on general fund programs, about 7 percent more than the budget before.
If Sen. Horsford's math is correct, and the Legislature ends up passing a $6.9 billion budget for 2009-11, state spending will increase 10 percent over current levels. That's right: State government will grow by double digits under the new budget when compared with the current, modified one -- the one that's 7 percent bigger than the one before.
But those facts won't get in the way of the nonsense that continues to come out of Carson City. You'll still hear and read the word "cut" a few hundred times before lawmakers adjourn in early June.
Those "cuts" will represent imaginary reductions from one of two bogus figures: the huge funding increases authorized in the 2007 budget that were never met because of the revenue shortfalls, and the pie-in-the-sky, what-we-wish-we-could-spend amounts most agencies requested for 2009-11 but knew they had no chance of getting.
Thus, anyone who claims the general fund should be about $8 billion to "maintain current services" (whatever that means) can say the budget reflects across-the-board cuts of 12 to 13 percent. Still a bit foggy on the math? Imagine a 10-year-old asking for a 50 percent increase in his allowance, but upon getting only a 10 percent boost, crying that his pay had been cut 40 percent.
If the public can be tricked into thinking that state government is being drastically cut back, even with a 10-figure tax hike, they'll be more likely to support the, ahem, "revenue enhancements."
But if they're made wise to the fact that state government will continue growing at a healthy clip when household budgets, businesses and the economy as a whole are contracting -- if they feel like they're being tricked -- they might say no.
Which is exactly why you'll hear about nothing but "cuts, cuts, cuts."
Buckley said under the plan businesses with payrolls of less than $250,000 would see their modified business tax rate drop from 0.63 percent to 0.5 percent. Larger businesses would see their rate rise to between 1.26 percent and 2 percent, she said.This isn't even a specific plan, but a range of options. And in eight days the legislature is going to have to vote on it. So much for her "commitment" to transparency.
“If we’re considering raising more revenue, not only should we exempt small businesses from those increases, we should provide them some tax relief,” she said. “These are businesses that employ a handful of people. Raising taxes on them could be the difference between laying people off.”
For Meadows teacher Kim Cagle, in her 17th year at the school, the one-year contracts make sense because you should have to continually prove yourself.Exactly. One-year contracts force employees to be their best and ensure that the employees are a good fit at their schools as well. And better teachers lead to better educated students, which is the point of either private or public education.
“This is the first job I had out of college,” said Cagle, a 1987 Chaparral High School graduate. “I never presumed to be offered anything more than a year from anywhere. It’s a little bit pompous to expect more from anybody.”
As I've written before, regarding the secrecy with which Nevada legislators are crafting our state's budget, "[i]f this were February, March or even early April, these closed-door meetings wouldn't be so significant, because there would still be plenty of time for the public to debate whatever the legislative leadership ultimately proposed." The problem with these secret meetings is that the legislature is going to pass Nevada's budget and a record or near-record tax increase in fewer than nine days, and citizens won't have time to learn about the details of the plan before it is voted on.The issue with these core group meetings is not that they exist but that they don’t form earlier. This silly conceit that putting a tax package out early creates more opposition and a chance to shoot down ideas is an abdication of responsibility by the leadership. Did they have so little faith in their ability to sell what they believe is right — preserving essential services by funding them with taxes — that they have to ram and jam in the final days?Yesterday, we found out that the secret core group of legislators finally reached an agreement on the amount of higher education funding they want to pass. Which means citizens can now find out exactly how much the legislature wants to spend in the next two years. Oh, wait. We still don't know that. After all, there's no time like later to clue the public in on the crisis budget.
According to a letter from the FDA General Mills' advertising violates the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The agency said claims that Cheerios ingredients can lower cholesterol within a certain amount of time, all while providing cancer-fighting and heart-healthy benefits, essentially makes Cheerios "a drug" by their definition. And no drug in this country can be legally marketed without an approved new drug application.These people should be laughed into the nut house, not given the authority to control what we eat or take more of our money in taxes.
Legislative leadership's core group meeting disbanded again without an agreement on how much to fund higher education, the last remaining budget lawmakers must settle in their alternative to Gov. Jim Gibbons' $6.2 billion budget.Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford seems to be the cause of the frustration.
Several lawmakers left the meeting visibly upset as a deadline for finishing the budget in time to override Gibbons' veto looms.
Democrats in the state Assembly and Republicans in both houses agree on a plan to cut higher education by 13 percent, but Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, wants a cut of just 12 percent, according to Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno.Is Sen. Horsford right or wrong? No one knows because these negotiations are all taking place behind closed doors and the average citizen is only able to get information from the media, which is also being denied access. The Review-Journal had an excellent editorial today calling out the legislature for hiding their plans for a record or near-record tax increase.
That disagreement amounts to just $14 million out of the multibillion-dollar budget, she said.
"Steven Horsford has drawn a line in the sand," Leslie said. In the group of a dozen key lawmakers negotiating the matter, "the majority of people have come to conclude that 13 percent is as far as we can stretch on the revenue side."
Horsford said the amount in dispute was "silly" but that his priority is protecting education and he has gone as far as he is willing to go.
The (tax) package might be common knowledge to insiders, but not having a formal proposal allows lawmakers to avoid attacks for their plans, and to build consensus behind the scenes so that a proposal can be presented as a done deal.From the Sun:
The big legislative news last week came when subcommittees voted to set spending levels for sections of the budget.Yep, those pesky citizens are such a pain. It's outrageous that they want to know how the legislature is going to spend taxpayer dollars. How generous of legislators to put up with the sniffling, insufferable normal people.
The votes happened in public, but with little drama. The real work to build the consensus had taken place in hours of closed-door meetings.
The public never sees the true debate over Nevada’s future, which has occurred this ession in “core group” meetings, where legislators of both parties hammer out deals.
In Carson City, cries for openness are often met with eye rolls. (Emphasis added.)
Legislators might have had good intentions in exempting themselves from the state's open meeting law, "but they're abusing it," said Barry Smith, executive director of the Nevada Press Association.
"Obviously, the most important discussions going on this session we're not getting to hear, and people are left hanging as to what's going on and what those discussions are. The whole future of the state is hanging on it, and the public is not being allowed to be part of the process."Smith said the solution lies not in a policy change, but in lawmakers "just upholding their own ideals."
Whether this news is good or not depends on your point of view, she (Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors President Sue Naumann) added.Every time the government uses the force of law to declare someone a winner, it takes something ─ money, time, opportunity ─ from someone else.
"Sellers obviously don’t want to see prices keep falling," Naumann said. "But buyers are taking advantage of historic bargains, with mortgage interest rates at an all-time low, and home prices now more affordable than they’ve been in a generation."
Driven by a whopping 40 percent reduction in prices, home sales soared in April in the Las Vegas area, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported today.This is the free market at work. It punishes those who take out mortgages they can't afford and rewards those who work hard, save up and live within theirs means. Unlike, say, the government.
The Realtors said single-family home sales in April totaled 3,198 -- up 7.3 percent from 2,980 in March and up 78.3 percent from 1,794 sales in April 2008.
Condominium and townhome sales totaled 727. That’s up 20.4 percent from 604 such sales in March and up 242.9 percent from 212 one year ago.
The median price of a single-family home sold in the Las Vegas area decreased by 4.9 percent during the month, from $149,000 in March to $141,720 in April. This current median price is down 39.9 percent compared to $235,875 in April 2008.
*The sports car equivalent of Nevada's K-12 education: expensive and non-functional. About 160 teachers and other staff sit idly in buildings scattered around the sprawling district, waiting for allegations of misconduct to be resolved.The housed are accused, among other things, of sexual contact with students, harassment, theft or drug possession. Nearly all are being paid. All told, they collect about $10 million in salaries per year ─ even as the district is contemplating widespread layoffs of teachers because of a financial shortfall.Some of these teachers have been on the dole for years. That's teacher unions for you: Make sure alleged misbehavers keep getting a paycheck so the union can keep collecting its union dues.
Former union leaders say teachers in the Los Angeles district used to be assigned non-teaching jobs when they were housed. "They should not just sit there like zombies," said Hank Springer, United Teachers Los Angeles president from 1975 to 1980.Just another example of teacher unions putting their own interests before everyone else's.
But the practice has changed in the last dozen years or so. Now, district officials say, they are prohibited from assigning chores under the contract with the teachers' union. Although there is no specific reference in the contract to housed employees, an attorney for L.A. Unified pointed to Article 9, Section 4.0, which defines the "professional duties" of a teacher, such as instructional planning and evaluating the work of pupils.
With no mention of photocopying, stuffing envelopes or answering telephones in the contract, the district and union have interpreted this provision as prohibiting clerical duties.
Anti-smoking advocates hailed the results of the long-awaited study, which mirror previous government and privately funded research on secondhand smoke and are expected to provide ammunition to those pressuring the gaming industry to implement smoking bans.
[Non-poker] casino dealers reported higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms compared to administrative and engineering employees, but the differences in the prevalence between the groups were not statistically significant.
Probably the most controversial thing the legislature will do this year will be to propose record or near-record tax increases. But average Nevada citizens don't know which taxes are going to be increased, how much they'll go up, or whether entirely new taxes will be created.Tyrus Cobb also makes this point today in the Nevada Appeal:
Nevadans remain in the dark because Buckley and a dozen or so other lawmakers are holding closed-door meetings to discuss how they are going to raise taxes. Apparently, Buckley's commitment to transparency is so shallow that it doesn't even extend to the entire legislative body, nor does she even recognize how inconsistent her own behavior is…
Some citizens will think that the final tax package is much too large. Some will think it's too small. Some will think that different taxes should have been increased or lowered, and still others will argue that Nevada didn't need to raise taxes at all. But since the process of crafting the package has been so opaque, Nevada's citizens will barely have time to learn about the bill, let alone share their opinions with their elected officials, before the bill goes to a vote. Let's at least hope that, unlike with the federal stimulus bill, legislators themselves will have time to read this one before they vote on it.
Discussions are apparently ongoing behind closed doors in something called the “core group.” It is not, we are assured, a “secret group.” However, neither the Legislature nor the public have had the opportunity to see, hear or subject these budget proposals to debate and analysis.We are dismayed that after promising a fresh slate of new ideas and new taxes, none has appeared and we, the public, after waiting so long, will have at best 10 days to scrutinize the final budget.These secret meetings should be open and transparent. Those politicians are playing with our money, and we deserve to know all of the surprises they have up their sleeves.
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