How not to get Las Vegas building: Hike building fees 70 percent

Although the city of Las Vegas has one of the worst housing/building markets in the country, the Las Vegas City Council has a plan — to make things worse. A city council subcommittee is now considering a proposal to hike building permit fees by up to 70 percent.

The proposed ordinance calls for an increase of 65 percent to 70 percent in the fees for plan checks, building permits and inspections. Those fees pay for the work of the Building and Safety Department.

While the city says construction trade groups are reluctantly on board, at least one entity is sharply critical, saying "bloated" salaries should be cut before fees are increased.

Building permit activity is one-third of what it was in 2004 and the Building and Safety Department has adjusted by shedding staff, paring a 124-person staff to 49 employees.

Further staff cuts are "impossible" if the city wants to continue providing adequate services, Chris Knight, the building department's director, said at a recent hearing to discuss the ordinance. Without a fee increase, however, more cuts would be necessary, he added.

If the city actually wanted to encourage growth instead of just protecting government jobs, it would lower taxes, cut red tape and loosen zoning requirements.

And what about the National Association of Industrial Office Properties' Southern Nevada Chapter claim that salaries are "bloated"?

Well, TransparentNevada shows that Chris Knight, director of the Building and Safety Department, made over $250,000 in 2009 in salary and benefits, so I'd say there's at least a case to be made.

Regardless, hiking building fees by 70 percent in the midst of a serious economic downturn (especially for builders) is the height of economic foolishness.

This chart shows how raising taxes (or fees, in this case) affects supply and demand.

Nanny of the Month

Police Chief Robert Copely of Quincy Illinois wins this month's "award" for arresting a man for giving free rides to individuals who had too much to drink. Yup, keeping drunk drivers off the street is illegal if you're not licensed. Go Nanny State!

New low for government

Taking eminent domain to an all new low is Montgomery Alabama. Using the backhand of big government, Montgomery declares your home blighted and orders you to tear it down - at your own expense. If you don't do it, they will, and yes, they'll bill you for it. Then, they will seize your property and sell it to a private corporation for development. Montgomery even did it to a man who was already renovating his home. They even tore down his home after he defeated the city in court.

Feds looking to repeat repeat of failed housing policy

One of my favorite things about idioms is that they often contradict each other. Does absence make the heart grow fonder or does out of sight mean out of mind as well?


With news breaking today that the feds are considering creating a third homebuyer tax credit program, it's the battle of two idioms: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again" vs. "Those who don't learn from their mistakes are bound to repeat them.

Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said Sunday the housing market's July woes were "worse than expected" and the administration might support a new homebuyer tax credit.

In an interview on CNN, Donovan said the administration is "concerned" about the path of the industry. He defended the Obama administration's record on supporting the housing market, amid new signs the market is struggling alongside the broader economy.

Donovan did not rule out a further homebuyer tax credit to support the market. Congress passed a homebuyer tax credit to support first-time buyers. The credit has now expired.

In this case, the winner is "Those who don't learn from their mistakes are bound to repeat them." The previous housing tax credit programs cost taxpayers a bundle while simply shifting housing demand forward. Once the tax credits ended,

Read more »

SEIU and the 'Amercan' Dream

Via Big Government, see if you can find the misspelling:

Read more »

How the Governator is trying to save California from pension disaster

First, a short but accurate video on what public employee pensions — without reforms — will do to states' budgets.



Second, here's a brief overview of how messed up California's pension system is, and the problems skyrocketing pension costs are causing for the Golden State.

Third and finally, here's what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to do about it and why.

How creative destruction works (and is working in Las Vegas)

Creative destruction is an essential part of the free market. Economist Joseph A. Schumpeter coined the term in "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy."

Capitalism, then, is by nature a form or method of economic change and not only never is but never can be stationary. ...

As we have seen in the preceding chapter, the contents of the laborer's budget, say from 1760 to 1940, did not simply grow on unchanging lines but they underwent a process of qualitative change. Similarly, the history of the productive apparatus of a typical farm, from the beginnings of the rationalization of crop rotation, plowing and fattening to the mechanized thing of today–linking up with elevators and railroads–is a history of revolutions. So is the history of the productive apparatus of the iron and steel industry from the charcoal furnace to our own type of furnace, or the history of the apparatus of power production from the overshot water wheel to the modern power plant, or the history of transportation from the mailcoach to the airplane. The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation–if I may use that biological term–that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in. [Emphasis added]

In my own words, "creative destruction" means this: Because there are limited resources in the world (scarcity), in order for there to be innovations and improvements there must also be a destruction and redistribution (through private decisions) of the scarce resources (raw materials and employees, etc.) that were being consumed by less productive means.

This is why it's so important that bad businesses are allowed to fail and lose money (as happens naturally in the marketplace outside of government interference). If bad businesses aren't allowed to fail, the limited resources that they are using will be stuck in inefficient and unwanted businesses instead of becoming available for better uses (as determined by the individuals in the marketplace). And if the government doesn't allow bad businesses to fail, successful businesses and taxpayers will be forced to subsidize them — literally rewarding failure.

Anyway, that's a long way of saying that there's a great story today in the Las Vegas Sun about how the recession is creating new opportunities for businesses — creative destruction in action.

Even as many retailers and food establishments are struggling to outlast the recession, franchises and chains are entering the market or expanding their footholds.

Some are taking advantage of the sharp decline in rent, the availability of storefronts at high-traffic shopping centers and declining competition. ...

Read more »

Rory Reid's budget plan: Strong in theory, short on details

As promised earlier today, here's NPRI's just issued press release on Rory Reid's budget plan.

Rory Reid's budget plan: Strong in theory, short on details

LAS VEGAS — A fiscal policy analyst with the Nevada Policy Research Institute today reacted to the release of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid's budget plan, saying that while Reid is right that Nevada's budget needs fundamental reform and can be balanced without raising taxes, his plan is short on details and relies on untenable assumptions.

"Rory Reid should be applauded for presenting a no-new-taxes budget and being willing to go on record with his proposals," said Geoffrey Lawrence, the NPRI analyst. "As the Nevada Policy Research Institute has been saying for months, past spending increases have created Nevada's current budget problems, and reducing spending will be necessary in the next session.

"However, while Reid's budget includes many meritorious reforms, especially those borrowed from the Spending and Government Efficiency Commission and from other states, several parts should concern taxpayers. Foremost is Reid's assumption of significantly higher revenue collections. Additionally, his plan includes multiple ideas that, while worth considering, are not backed up with specific details."

Reid's budget plan assumes that Nevada will collect $615 million more in taxes in Fiscal Year 2013 than the Legislative Counsel Bureau currently projects.

"The problem with assuming more tax revenue in the second year of a two-year budget is that the governor is legally obligated to present a balanced budget to the legislature in January," said Lawrence. "Even if Reid's assumption proves correct in Fiscal Year 2013, his office would be forced next year to present a balanced budget based on the revenue projections from the December 2010 meeting of the Economic Forum.

"Additionally, while his plan to save $200 million in human services and transportation is solid in concept, it contains few details. Nor does his plan consider the implementation cost of many of his proposed programs.

"Overall, taxpayers should be grateful for Rory Reid's commitment not to raise taxes. But they should adopt a ‘trust-but-verify' approach toward his plan. It has a lot of potential — and a lot of unanswered questions."

If you're interested in getting NPRI's press releases and other research materials as they come out, head over the NPRI homepage and sign up for email updates using the top box on the right column.

Why Nevada and most other states have budget problems

I've been sharing a lot of charts recently, but sometimes a picture really does say it all. This one shows why states such as Nevada, California and New York are facing budget deficits.

It's the spending, stupid.

It's also timely, given that Rory Reid released his budget plan this morning. To his credit, Reid does not call for tax increases and suggests several worthy reforms. A more detailed analysis from NPRI, highlighting both the meritorious and worrisome, is coming shortly.

Rory Reid releases budget plan

Via Ralston's Flash, here is Reid's budget plan.

(Very) initial thoughts:

• Great line: "We cannot tax our way out of our problems." Maybe someone could send that memo to Horsford and Raggio.

• He pulls a lot of good ideas from Florida and the SAGE Commission.

• The plan assumes $615 million in tax revenues will appear.

• The plan is short on details in the “reinventing state government” section

More thoughts will be coming, but the next time someone says we need to raise taxes in Nevada, show him this report.

Read more »

One picture says it all: Why the national debt is a serious issue

This shouldn't just concern young adults, kids and anyone who cares about the children.

If you're depending on Social Security or Medicare at any point in the next 20 years, this should be absolutely terrifying. These debt levels are not sustainable and at some point benefits to the elderly are going to be on the chopping/reform block. If I were depending on Social Security and/or Medicare, I'd be demanding reform right now. (And if you're counting on the Social Security trust fund — think again.)

Denying that there's a problem with Social Security and Medicare will make future cuts and reforms even harsher for the elderly, because delaying the inevitable will only ensure that older adults aren't prepared for future reductions until after they’ve retired and it's much, much harder to save.

SimCapitalism

After reading this enlightening critique of the computer game "Caesar III" by Mattheus von Guttenberg today, I have decided that I should (note: "should" is not necessarily synonomous with "will") create my own video game.

Now, I have no familiarity with "Caesar III" or any of the newer simulation video games that endow the player with absolute power over a society of people, but it sounds remarkably similar to a game that I played once many years ago: SimCity.


Games like this are immediately frustrating. The player, tasked with building a growing and thriving city, is obligated to raise taxes in order to finance the construction of EVERY SINGLE DEVELOPMENT in the city. I remember playing SimCity many years ago and thinking, "These must be the laziest people on the planet! Why is it that there is no private construction going on at all in this city?"

After reading Guttenberg's review today, I can see that this genre of games still fails to incorporate the one fundamental component that drives economic advancement the world over: entrepreneurship. In fact, every "SimPerson" in these games is no more than a slave - going to and fro at the behest of the absolute ruler.

So my new game idea would be titled "SimCapitalism." This would be a new addition to the simulation genre that would allow for much easier gameplay. In fact, the player's only task would be to sit back and watch the city build itself!

It's amazing that the world's autocrats-in-training took the personal initiative to: (1) acquire a job to earn money; and (2) go to the store and purchase a game that would satisfy their highest utility. Yet, they completely fail to recognize the role that markets should play in that game.

But then, since they have no choice in schools, what else do you expect?

Housing market continues its decline

Ever since the first stimulus bill included a new homebuyer tax credit, free-market thinkers have been warning that the $8,000 tax credit wouldn't create any new demand for houses — it would only shift demand forward. And once the tax credit expired, demand would plummet.

And since the tax credit expired April 30 of this year, we see now that that's exactly what happened. In fact, July sales are at the lowest level in 15 years.

The National Association of Realtors said sales [of previously owned US homes] dropped a record 27.2 percent from June to an annual rate of 3.83 million units, the lowest level since May 1995. June's sales pace was revised down to a 5.26 million-unit pace. ...

Home sales picked up in the spring when the government was offering tax credits. But the tax credits expired on April 30 and the market has been hobbled since.

This result shouldn't surprise anyone. The exact same thing happened with Cash for Clunkers.

Read more »

Fighting for the heart and soul

Does NSHE need an exorcism?

Nevada Sytem of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Klaich wants a 4.5 percent increase in state appropriations. Without it, he argues, the university system won't be able to function.

According to Dan Klaich, "we're in a fight for the heart and soul and future of Nevada."

It seems Dan Klaich, and many others, are forgetting some very important facts.

Like the fact that both UNLV and UNR saw dramatic increases in their budgets - far higher than inflation and student population growth combined. And that both universities blew alot of that money on administrators. Oh and don't forget about the fact that after all that money and all those new employees, neither university can graduate 50 percent of their students within 6 years.

If Chancellor Klaich really believes the universities need more money after all that, then you should worry about whether NSHE needs to go on a diet or have an exorcism.

L.A. opening $578 million public school

California has some of the worst test scores in the nation. Only 54 percent of its fourth graders can read at a basic level or better, and only 24 percent are at a proficient or better level.

Instead of spending money on improving teacher quality (the most important school-controlled factor in student achievement), the L.A. Unified School District is about to open the most expensive school in America.

Next month's opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968.

With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation's most expensive public school ever.

The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the crème de la crème of "Taj Mahal" schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.

"There's no more of the old, windowless cinderblock schools of the '70s where kids felt, 'Oh, back to jail,'" said Joe Agron, editor-in-chief of American School & University, a school construction journal. "Districts want a showpiece for the community, a really impressive environment for learning."

Not everyone is similarly enthusiastic.

"New buildings are nice, but when they're run by the same people who've given us a 50 percent dropout rate, they're a big waste of taxpayer money," said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution who sits on the California Board of Education. "Parents aren't fooled."

A great line from Allah Pundit sums this atrocity up perfectly:

So there you go, kids. There won’t be any jobs waiting for you when you get out, but you’ll have the time of your life until then. Enjoy the infrastructure!

Fortunately, there are a lot of people doing great work on reforms that actually do increase student achievement. For instance, watch this ReasonTV interview with Madeline Sackley, the director of the school documentary "The Lottery."



Find out more about "The Lottery" here.

Pun in the sun

This morning on Steve Wark's radio show I noted that Florida implemented a third-grade social-promotion ban. Basically, if kids could not read at grade level by the end of third grade, they could be held back. "What a 'novel' idea," I said.

So in honor of my accidental pun, I present you with 10 more classics. Enjoy.


1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says, "Dam!"

3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, "I've lost my electron." The other says, "Are you sure?" The first replies, "Yes, I'm positive."

5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.

6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

7. A woman delivers a set of identical twins and decides to give them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."

8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" the friars to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.

9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

10. "Don't go John," Alice pleads to her husband as he boards a fishing trawler headed for the north Atlantic. "You won the lottery last week, we don’t need the money. So why John? Why do you want to sail out into those dangerous icy waters again?" John folds his arms across his chest, the way manly fishermen do, and looks straight into his wife’s eyes and says "I do it for the halibut."

Tune in

I (Patrick Gibbons, education policy analyst at NPRI) will be on Steve Wark in the Morning, AM 670 (Las Vegas), Thursday at 8 a.m. Listen in to hear me discuss Brian Sandoval's education reform plan, teacher bailouts and, perhaps, my new commentary on administrative bloat in higher education.

Later on Thursday I will be on 91.5 FM with Dave Berns (another Las Vegas station) at 5 PM to talk about the new Goldwater Institute study on administrative bloat in higher education. I will be opposite Dr. Greg Brown, a history professor and president of the faculty alliance at UNLV.

A book that dispels the rationale for interventionism

The work of a former colleague of mine, Roy Cordato, was highlighted today in a Mises Institute article by Jeffrey Tucker. Roy's 1992 book, Efficiency and Externalities in an Open-Ended Universe was reprinted by the Mises Institute in 2007 and lays a great theoretical framework on how the traditional justifications offered for large-scale government interventionism can be addressed more efficiently through market processes.

I highly recommend the book and it can be downloaded from the Mises Institute for free as a PDF file.

Bracing for Obamacare

And a few ideas on how to improve health care.

Teacher bailouts

Thanks to the teacher bailout, Nevada went from "potentially" losing "thousands" of "teachers" (with less than half of all school district employees working as classroom teachers, I've already called shenanigans on Nevada's political elites) to wanting to hire up to 1,400 more. However, throwing $83 million in one-time stimulus at education to hire more teachers (which won’t improve student achievement) is just another example of bipartisan irresponsibility in the Silver State.

Wasting your money

Can you guess which federal programs in the video above are real or fake? Maybe not, but you probably did guess the programs were all a waste of your hard-earned tax dollars.

Good teachers vs. bad teachers

Is your child's teacher any good?

The L.A. Times collected data, via information request, on student achievement in the L.A. Unified School District, then handed the information over to the Rand Corporation for study. Using value added assessment, Rand and the L.A. Times found that there was a night-and-day difference between the quality of teachers at many schools. Some teachers were so bad that their students fell behind their peers. Others, so good that their students went from being below average to above average.

Unfortunately, union-imposed rules prevent school districts from rewarding high-quality teachers. Unions prefer the mind-dulling, lock-step pay system that rewards teachers for years of service rather than quality and, as a result, promotes mediocrity.

Horsford, Raggio call for record tax increases

Last week Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford called for a $1.5 billion tax hike. And earlier this week, Anjeanette Damon reported that Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio has also called for new taxes. Raggio didn't specify an amount, but let's just say he's hoping to do more than make the 2009 Raggio tax increases permanent.

In a brief interview today, Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the state’s budget crisis is so great that a tax increase and an extension of the temporary 2009 tax increase may be necessary to keep government afloat.

First, let's remember that Horsford has called for $1.5 billion in spending cuts, so if the budget Horsford wants is over $4.9 billion, citizens should hold the Senate majority leader to the standard he created for himself.

Second, and unfortunately, I don't have time right now to fully flesh out how tax increases kill jobs and increase government deficits over the long term, so I'm going to have to rely on the 2008 edition of Sen. Horsford and the 2008 edition of Sen. Raggio to tell you why raising taxes in a recession is a bad idea.
Via Glenn Cook, here's Sen. Horsford in 2008.

"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 [2008].
"The general fund needs to be managed in a way that doesn't allow growth beyond population growth and inflation."

And here's Sen. Raggio in 2008.

With our citizens facing higher costs, over $4.00 per gallon for fuel and higher costs for food and other necessities, businesses hurting, unemployment rising, this is not the time to talk about raising taxes.

What should Nevada do instead of raising taxes? Rory Reid and Brian Sandoval both have suggestions that would help correct the 29 percent increase in inflation-adjusted, per-capita spending that Nevada's had over the last 15 years.

For example, here's Reid's take on the out-of-control education bureaucracy.

Democrat gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid told the Nevada News Bureau yesterday there are other options for moving the state out of its current budget crisis besides increasing taxes and cutting programs.

In an interview at a local coffee shop, Reid pulled out two pieces of paper. One showed an organization chart for the state’s public education system from 1989. The other shows how it looks now.

The newer chart showed many more layers of government, including advisory panels, legislative committees and other bureaucratic creations that have evolved over the past 20 years.

Reid said the two charts demonstrate one way Nevada can save several hundred million dollars: by streamlining government services to eliminate redundancies and inefficiencies in state government.

Reforms like these, not tax increases, will be the ones that take political courage. Sen. Horsford and Sen. Raggio didn't even keep their promises to oppose tax increases for one year.

Nevada's citizens should do their best to discover if either Reid or Sandoval have a greater amount of political courage and integrity than Sen. Horsford and Sen. Raggio have shown.

ReasonTV: Union jobs vs. Children's lives: Which side are you on?

Given that Congress just passed a government jobs bill aimed mostly at teachers, this question from ReasonTV is both timely and important.



More ReasonTV here.

Say what?

What? We just went from possibly firing teachers if we didn't get a "stimulus" to being able to hire 1,400 NEW teachers?

And by the way, the "1,000" teacher jobs lost were mostly through attrition not because the education budgets were "significantly" reduced. As I reported earlier this year, K-12 education will probably spend more this biennium than in the last.

Rothbard on deflation

Kudos to William Anderson today for drawing the relevant passages out of my favorite book, Man, Economy, and State regarding the true nature of inflation versus deflation. Nobody explains the time preference and redistributionary impacts of inflation, nor the corrective influence exerted by deflation, better than Rothbard.

Here's the key passage:

Just as inflation is generally popular for its narcotic effect, deflation is always highly unpopular for the opposite reason. The contraction of money is visible; the benefits to those whose buying prices fall first and who lose money last remain hidden. And the illusory accounting losses of deflation make businesses believe that their losses are greater, or profits smaller, than they actually are, and this will aggravate business pessimism.

It is true that deflation takes from one group and gives to another, as does inflation. Yet not only does credit contraction speed recovery and counteract the distortions of the boom, but it also, in a broad sense, takes away from the original coercive gainers and benefits the original coerced losers. While this will certainly not be true in every case, in the broad sense much the same groups will benefit and lose, but in reverse order from that of the redistributive effects of credit expansion. Fixed-income groups, widows and orphans, will gain, and businesses and owners of original factors previously reaping gains from inflation will lose. The longer the inflation has continued, of course, the less the same individuals will be compensated.

Some may object that deflation "causes" unemployment. However, as we have seen above, deflation can lead to continuing unemployment only if the government or the unions keep wage rates above the discounted marginal value products of labor. If wage rates are allowed to fall freely, no continuing unemployment will occur.

Union official in deep, deep denial

They say that breaking through denial is the first step to recovery. If that's the case, than AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka has long ways to go, because as you'll see in this clip, his denial about the deficit runs deep.



The national debt is currently $13.3 trillion and counting. Anyone who thinks that isn't a problem hasn't been paying attention.

Also of note is this great column by Dustin Siggins, who introduces an important term — the "Debt Paying Generation."

In the near future, The Heritage Foundation’s Bill Beach and I will officially introduce the soon-to-be-important term “The Debt-Paying Generation,” (DPG) a term that all Americans should become familiar with. It is the financial future of America, and not a pretty one at that.

What is the DPG? It is those Americans who are presently between 5 and 30, and will be hardest hit from childhood through death by the debt irresponsibility in Washington. According to calculations broken down from Census Bureau data, the DPG is approximately 35% of the total American population, and currently stands at 108,670,000. Given expected life spans- nearly 80 years old on average, and having increased an average of three years since 1990- it is not impossible to believe that the DPG will be the longest-lived generation in American history.

Why is this age group being named the “Debt-Paying Generation?” Well, primarily because this generation will almost certainly have to pay down most of our national debt through higher taxes, which almost certainly will relegate them to the status of being the first generation of Americans to live a worse life than its immediate predecessors. Additionally, to rub salt in the wound, the big three entitlement programs—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—will have to be cut and, thus, will pay less to the Debt Paying Generation than the Boomers.

Read the whole thing.

The government vs. everyone else

Government workers have the safest jobs

Not only could Nevada fire 1,660 teachers (assuming no $83 million "teacher" bailout) and see no negative effects in student achievement, but teachers would still have a safer job than most of the private sector in Nevada. Of course, actual teachers make up less than half of all school district employee so why would the bailout magically save ONLY teacher jobs?

Oh, and it appears Democrats may be trying to pay for the teacher bailout by creaming money from the Food Stamps program. Yes, robbing poor hungry Americans to subsidize teachers who already earn incomes that are higher than the national average.

That is tragic, but this is comic: the Milwaukee teacher union is fighting to use the bailout money to get Viagra covered by their health insurance plan. A stimulus indeed.

Yes, the latest bailout is just another payoff from congressional Democrats to their local union buddies. HT: JPGB

Monthly reminder: The stimulus was and is an epic failure

July's unemployment rate — still at 9.5% — came out last Friday, so it's time for yet another reminder of what an epic failure the stimulus was and is.

Remember the standard that I'm comparing the stimulus to is the standard Obama and Reid set for the stimulus themselves. They used the chart below to justify passage of the stimulus and believers in the free market should use it now to show how bankrupt Obama and Reid's economic policies are.

And unfortunately, the bad news keeps coming. Nevada's unemployment rate — already the nation's highest — will be substantially higher than the national rate, once state data is released.

Two things: Since the first stimulus was such an object failure, why are Obama and Reid trying to pass another one?

Also, this is the perfect reminder of why it's not the government's job to create jobs. When the government tries to create jobs, it simply make things worse.

Good intentions are not enough. Ideas have consequences and when the government institutes bad policy, bad results follow.

Democrats like education reform too

Yes, Democrats do support meaningful education reform

Alan Stock at KXNT invited me on his show to talk about education reform and my commentary "Civil rights groups’ education proposal misses the mark." Overall the interview was good, but on my drive home (this always happens) I realized I forgot to say something very important (in TV and radio interviews, or with any public speaking, my mind is always racing from one fact to the next so I'm bound to miss something). I realized I came down a little too hard on Democrats - the real problem I talked about was with congressional Democrats, which (like congressional Republicans) don't represent the views of all Democrats.

In reality, not all Democrats are against serious and meaningful education reform - I even did an entire blog on this subject. Not only are President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan both supportive of serious education reform, but the entire city council of D.C., plus the mayor, are in favor of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Furthermore, half of the African American Democrats in Florida voted to expand the "Step Up For Students" scholarship program. Finally, there is an entire group called "Democrats for Education Reform."

Education reform isn't a conservative vs. liberal or Republican vs. Democrat issue - or at least it shouldn't be - I'm sorry I forgot to make this point.

That said, education is a real wedge issue with Democrats today. Democrats are stuck between the very powerful teacher unions who fork out millions of dollars every campaign cycle and constituents, especially low-income and minorities, who suffer from the sub-par public education monopoly the union hopes/prays (and pays so it) will linger for all eternity.

You can listen to my interview here, but remember, not all Democrats are against charter schools, vouchers, teacher evaluations and merit pay.

Rough draft outline of the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group's report

Here's the rough draft outline of the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group's report (pdf file) prepared by Moody's Analytics.

Give the outline a brief scan and you'll find that it's a leftist's wish list, including gems like:

· Strategy: Review constitutional restriction on public funding of private enterprises;
· A metric under the goal of "Raising the quality of elementary and secondary education: Expenditure per pupil”;
· Strategy under "Increase early-childhood education options: Expand requirements for early childhood education centers”;
· An obesity rate metric;
· Strategy: Stabilize fire department funding. (Reminder: 75 percent Clark County firefighters make more than $100,000, not including over $40,000 in benefits.); and
· Metric: Decreasing the number of Automobile Vehicle Miles Traveled by Capita (Their vision includes separating you from your car).

The above is just a sampling of the vision the leftists, union members and government officials have for your life.

Which leads me to the question: Why is someone else (or a group of 20 people) setting a 20-year vision — for which taxpayers would foot the bill — for you and me and the entire state of Nevada?

I know this whole process has been a charade to give politicians, led by Sen. Steven Horsford, political cover to call for tax increases in 2011, but for them to assume that they have the ability, using government coercion, to tell everyone else how they should live their lives is appalling.

Live blogging the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group meeting: August 6, 2010

1:21 update - Thanks to everyone for reading. I'm going to be posting the handout from Moody's very shortly. The handout is the outline of the rough draft of the stakeholders group report. As NPRI has predicted -- before the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group even existed -- this outline is a wish list for union members and government officials.

Another meeting of the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group. The agenda is here, and you can watch it live online here.

9:06 Lang starts off acknowledging that part of the tax study won't be accomplished. Says it doesn't concern the NVSG and its agenda.

9:08 Lang: No formal testimony previously on education, so that's what's on the agenda today. Lack of human capital (through education) holding back Nevada today.

9:09 Lang trying to justify spending more on higher ed. If you spend enough, eventually the feds or private endowments will pay for them.

9:11 Lang says UNLV is funded like Cal State schools.

9:13 Only 13 members of the NVSG and its alternates are here today. The NVSG has 19 members, Chairman Lang and several alternates. Given that it's summer, the low turnout is understandable.

9:16 The real question is where's Moody's? The only non-stakeholder person up front is Dave Ziegler of the LCB.

9:18 Presentation from the Nevada System of Higher Education laments that only 1 in 10 of Nevada's high school freshman will graduate college within 6 years of higher education schooling.

9:24 Random employment stat: Government jobs are the third biggest "employment by occupation" category in Nevada.

9:35 NSHE representative gives a pretty standard presentation -- we need to send more kids to college, etc... which is really code for give us more money. Also says she wants to create a "college-going culture."

This is the kind of generic rhetoric that is either worthless (over-broad) or just code words for give us more money (or as they like to call it: investment). Always easier to invest someone else's money.

9:38 Apparently Chancellor Klaich is presenting a statewide plan in the upcoming weeks for higher ed.

9:40 NVSG member Rene Canto Jr asks the obvious question -- how do you move beyond the platitudes? NSHE rep: I don't know. We're going to try new ways.

That sums up this presentation perfectly.

9:43 NSHE rep: We are very serious about making changes.

Okay, I'm convinced -- look they're very serious.

9:48 NSHE rep says Nevada is "very young," in regards to higher ed.

9:50 Doug Busselman: Why aren't we getting results from the money we're already spending.

Great question.

9:51 NSHE rep: We haven't done a good enough job in the state building the need for a college degree.

Reminder average college student leaves with $23,200 in debt.

9:53 Lang: No state regrets investing in higher education. Cites North Carolina.

Praises Arizona for raising sales tax rate for education. Praises Arizona State University.

"Made investments" continues to be standard code words for raising taxes.

9:56 Other reminder Lang works for an organization (UNLV) that would directly benefit from this "investment."

9:59 Elaine Wynn is calling in to give testimony on the Governor's Blue Ribbon Education Task Force (K-12), per Sen. Horsford's request.

10:02 Complains that once they opened up their meetings to the public only a few people showed up.

10:05 Wynn: A child born in Nevada has the least chance of succeeding of a child born in any other state.

Reminder: The failure of education in Nevada isn't the result of overspending, because over the last 50 years Nevada has nearly tripled inflation-adjusted, per-pupil spending over the last 50 years, but results have been stagnate.



10:07 Wynn says an agreement is in place to expand charter schools.

Hadn't heard that yet.

10:09 Still a lot of platitudes. Says Nevada will be targeting manufacturing in the future.

Wonder how those businesses will like Horsford's (rumored) new business tax proposal?

10:12 Wynn makes excuses about why Nevada's Race to the Top application didn't make the cut. Says there has to be a commitment to funding public education.

Is a 180 percent increase in inflation-adjusted, per-pupil funding not enough? How much more does the educational establishment want before we can hold them accountable for how they spend our money?

10:18 Marsha Irvin: What are the action steps? (Good question)
Wynn says staff will get back to her.

10:22 I think Lang is trying not to fall asleep. Can't blame him, so am I.

10:26 Any one have the link to the Blue Ribbon Commission's Race to the Top application? They say it's online somewhere.

10:31 Robert Potter (representing the AFSCME, of course) says we need better benefits to attract and hold teachers.

10:34 Wynn is close to saying good things -- Nevada has some bad teachers, there's no silver bullet solution.

10:36 Superintendent of Public Instruction Keith Rheault begins testifying. Notes that Nevada's State Board of Education's goals are very vague.

10:42 Rheault: Nevada can't say it values education.

Who is our state? Parents, community members, government? Don't know.

10:47 So many platitudes. Listing off a bunch of things he hopes will improve student achievement.

Hey, I have an idea! Let's institute the reforms Florida implemented 12 years ago.


10:56 Lang cuts him off and asks him to get to the long range goals (2030). And of course, the first goal is expanding Pre-K, which only improves student achievement for 1-4 years. (Give me a second to look up studies on this. Here's one example. Also here. )

11:06 Rene Canto is concerned about the Latino community and education. Anyone interested in minority student achievement should check out Florida's record.


11:12 Lang's worried that goals are too lofty!!! What?

Says we should aim to be 45th or 47th. Says it's an improvement.

My guess: Either this is a react to the last meeting or Horsford doesn't want the NVSG

11:14 Reheault says Florida is a model! Yes, yes, yes. Says reform mattered, but they achieved also because of higher funding. No, no, no.

It wasn't about the money, it was about how they spent the money. Read more here.

11:16 Lang asks for key policies of Florida. Reheault: Funded better, held schools accountable, online learning.

Hey, what about stopping social promotion, charter schools and vouchers or scholarships? (Read the full list of Florida's reforms here.) And if this state is the model for other states, why don't you, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, know all of their reforms? Why aren't you trying to implement them in Nevada?

11:21 Lang says final meeting will be in September.

11:22 Up next a report from a private Nevada University, Touro. They're here at the recommendation of Sen. Horsford. Nothing really to add. Sounds like a nice school of medicine.

11:37 Says Touro tries not to take any legislative money.

11:38 Touro says 135 students in each of their classes. University of Nevada School of Medicine has about 50.

11:39 Lang asks what the committee can do to help. Touro rep says state system can't address of the state's needs. Needs regs and laws that encourage the development of private education. When Touro started they couldn't have a nursing program, because of state regulations.

Basically Nevada needs to stop making it illegal for private colleges to have certain courses.

11:43 Here comes Moody's to talk about how the voting will work. There rep was here (right in front of me actually, oops), but I don't think he was taking notes.

Lang again talks about limiting goals.

11:45 Steve Cochran with Moody's says the deadline for draft report is August 30. Passes out a rough draft. Will try and get a copy and post the pdf online when I get back to the office.

11:48 Moody's mentions "systematic inquiry" has been helpful, which if you remember last time was Lang's slang he coined in order to avoid the Open Meetings Law. Although if the conversations were just with Moody's and one person, I'm not sure if that's a violation. Will check on that.

11:51 Just received a copy of the rough draft of Moody's report for the NVSG and yep, it's a wish list of government spending. Doesn't have 5-, 10- and 20-year goals yet. Just a broad overview.

11:55 Lang says NVSG members should give input offline, before the next meeting.

11:58 Rob Potter says his systematic inquiry interview is next Tuesday. Ziegler assures Lang these don't violate the open meeting law.

12:00 Keith Smith notes there's no 5-, 10- or 20-year plans. Says the NVSG should be focused on strategies not tactics. Lang says final report will include narrative providing rationale.

12:05 Ziegler updates the committee on the contract dates. Draft report from Moody's must be submitted no later than August 31. Final meeting must be on or before September 10. Final report for Moody's is due September 15.

12:07 Ray Bacon starts off public comment. Recommends NPRI's study on Florida. Available here and thanks for the plug. As a result, he says the educational climate in Florida has dramatically improved (via a Chamber of Commerce official in Florida).

12:12 Lang says his 5 minutes are up and Bacon wraps up.

12:13 Patrick Gibbons starts his comment. Has a lot to cover and is talking fast (he's only got 5 minutes!). But good news, the basis for his comments is here and you can read it at your leisure.

Goes into K-12. Notes pre-K has no long term benefits. But if they are going to do, recommends vouchers. Notes class size reduction is ineffective at improving student achievement.

12:18 And here comes a teachers union official. Says Nevada has a retention problem -- half of Nevada educators leave in 3 years. And of course, pay them well, so they'll stay in the state.

12:20 And meeting adjourned. See you in September.

As this is a live blog, please forgive any spelling errors.

Horsford now wants to cut $1.5 billion in spending

Another surprise takeaway from Tuesday's Las Vegas Sun interview with Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford:

“There has to be some combination of spending reductions and revenue to balance the budget,” he said. “It should be almost a dollar-for-dollar equation.”

With the state facing an estimated $3 billion shortfall, Horsford, D-Las Vegas, proposed in an interview with the Las Vegas Sun that the state should cut programs or shift them along with their costs to local governments.

These spending reductions would total about $1.5 billion.

Ignore, for the moment, his call for spending cuts to be matched by a dollar-for-dollar tax hike — the liberal Democratic Senate majority leader just called for $1.5 billion in spending cuts. With a state budget of $6.4 billion after the special session, that means that the liberal Democratic Senate majority leader believes that Nevada's budget should be about $4.9 billion in the next biennium. Amazingly, just like yesterday, when Horsford announced he now opposes creating a corporate income tax, he's exactly right that Nevada needs a substantial reduction in spending (which would really just reverse Nevada's 29 percent increase in inflation-adjusted, per-capita spending over the last 15 years).

The next time leftists attack advocates of limited government for wanting to cut government spending, please remind them that substantially cutting government spending is a bipartisan position.

The next time you read or hear a news story about Nevada's "dire" budget situation, write a letter to the editor or e-mail the reporter and remind them there's a bipartisan plan — cut spending by $1.5 billion.

If you're a citizen or candidate defending your belief that Nevada's budget situation can be resolved by reining in out-of-control spending, remember that there's a bipartisan consensus supporting a budget of no more $5 billion.

Now, does Sen. Horsford really support reducing spending to $5 billion or, as it should be known, correcting Nevada's 29 percent increase in inflation-adjusted, per capita spending over the last 15 years?

I hope so, but the cynical side of me is skeptical. Why? Because there's been a fundamental dishonesty — due to confusion, ignorance or willful intent — in how the budget numbers have been cited and reported for the last six months and I suspect that many of the cuts Horsford envisions will be to spending that doesn't exist.

But I'm more than happy for Sen. Horsford to prove me wrong and, regardless, citizens, candidates, media members and elected officials should hold Sen. Horsford to the standard he created for himself — a $5 billion budget in 2011 — and should remember that cutting spending by $1.5 billion is a bi-partisan position championed by Nevada's own liberal Democratic Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford.

What does Nevada's budget situation really look like? Keep watching the blog and I'll discuss that soon.

Ideological diversity not apparent in Nevada higher education

Nevada’s universities this year faced real budget cuts — and by real, I mean they saw an actual decline in expenditures from the previous year. With fewer dollars coming in, the universities are not filling open positions. Some individuals even worry that qualified faculty will flee to universities in other states (although few states appear immune to budget cuts this year). Worse, some are worried that the universities might lose racially and sexually diverse faculty.

There can be no doubt that racism, and other -isms, still exist in America today. But the real culprit behind the racial inequality that persists has more to do with the fact that minorities are more likely to get a substandard education from our public school monopoly than whites. The quality of your education goes a long way in helping to generate the skills necessary to succeed in life.

Your skin color, or even sexual orientation, makes no difference in how competent you will be at your job — any job. Racial and sexual differences may provide unique perspectives on some things some of the time, but the same is true for political diversity, and that is not represented very well at most universities.

Typically, academics argue that racial and sexual diversity provide great benefits to the university’s intellectual climate, but somehow, ideological diversity has no importance at all. Such reasoning has no intellectual basis, because it is merely an excuse to avoid looking at how un-diverse academia really is.

Universities claim to love diversity, but often in the world of open minds, the faculty appears to think a lot alike

Looking at federal campaign donations from 2008 and 2010 at Open Secrets (analysis completed August 4, 2010), I compared donations from UNR and UNLV faculty to Republican, Democrat and independent candidates and affiliated organizations. Political campaign donations are an imperfect proxy for the ideological makeup of Nevada’s universities, but it most likely provides a close approximation.

I found that, between UNLV and UNR, 91.7 percent of all donations and 91 percent of all dollars donated went to Democrats and their affiliates. Based on this data, UNR appears to have virtually no political diversity. At UNR, 98.8 percent of donors sent money to Democrats while 98.2 percent of the dollars went to Democrats. UNLV was “more” diverse, but not much — 84.6 percent of donations and 85.9 percent of dollars donated from UNLV faculty went to Democrats.

Sometimes diversity initiatives are taken too far and lead to preferential treatment and discrimination

These results are similar to what University of Arkansas professor Dr. Jay P. Greene found when he examined political contributions at the nation’s top 10 universities during the 2008 campaign cycle. Dr. Green found that 87 percent of donations at these elite universities went to Democrats while 91 percent of the dollar value of the donations went to Democrats.

Universities claim to be places of diversity and open-mindedness, but this is not true when it comes to political affiliation or ideology. I’m not suggesting affirmative action for Libertarian and Republican professors, but the universities should be more honest about how diverse they actually are. Universities should work hard to ensure ideological minorities are heard on campus and prevent the dominant (if not, at times, intolerant) left wing from issuing a heckler’s veto on right-of-center speakers, events, protests or clubs.

Finally, we should consider whether the lack of ideological diversity among university faculty is due to selection bias, peer pressure, political litmus tests, intolerant discrimination or some other factor.

Obama and Reid's new economic plan: Same as the old one

Does this plan look familiar?

Click on the image to enlarge

It should, because the plan — Spend! Spend! Spend! under the guise of recovery — has been what Obama and Reid have been pushing ever since they passed the $787 billion stimulus bill in February 2009. And the Reid/Obama plan has worked about as well as the plan that this cartoon — published in the Chicago Tribune on April 20, 1934 — is satirizing.

And if you think the New Deal got us out of the Great Depression, you need to read Great Myths of the Great Depression to understand how government action prolonged the depression, just like current government actions are deepening this economic downturn.

Major hat tip to Reno Hayek for the cartoon. If you're interested in a Nevada-based economics blog, be sure to check out Reno Hayek regularly.

African-Americans support charter schools; NAACP does not

Last week several civil rights groups, like the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, attacked the concept of charter schools in a report (both groups have since distanced themselves from the report, but not necessarily from their attack on charter schools). But as it turns out, a majority of African-Americans now support charter schools.

Dr. Paul Peterson of Harvard University writes in the Wall Street Journal,

“Each year we provided respondents the same, neutral description of charter schools, followed by the question: "Do you support or oppose the formation of charter schools?" Those interviewed were also given the choice of saying they "neither support or oppose" charters.

Support for charters among African Americans rose to 49% in 2009, up from 42% in 2008. This year it leapt upward to no less than 64%. Among Hispanics support jumped to 47% in 2010, from 37% in 2008.

Opposition to charters is expressed by 14% of African-Americans and 21% of Hispanics. Twenty-three percent of African-Americans and 33% of Hispanics take a neutral position.

Among the public as a whole, charter supporters currently outnumber opponents by a margin of better than 2 to 1. Forty-four percent say they are in favor of charters, while 19% stand in opposition. Parents in general are even more supportive of charter schools: 51% like them, 15% don't.”

So why are civil rights groups ignoring their constituents? Dr. Peterson concludes,

“By casting their lot firmly with teachers unions, the leadership of the NAACP and the Urban League hope to preserve their power and safeguard their traditional sources of financial support. Not only is this is a cynical strategy, it ignores where African-Americans and Hispanics are on the issue. Thankfully, the Obama administration is paying attention to the needs of low-income, minority communities and not to their purported leaders."

For more on this subject, check out my new commentary, titled "Civil rights groups’ education proposal misses the mark."

Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group to meet again this Friday

After a long hiatus, which included the LCB cancelling the tax portion of the tax study and deciding to pay Moody's $100,000 to complete a spending wish list for union members and government officials, the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group is meeting once again.

The NVSG will meet this Friday, Aug. 6 at 9 a.m. at the Grant Sawyer Building by video conference to Carson City. The agenda is here, and you can watch it live online here.

Or better yet, you can follow our live blog right here on Friday beginning at 9 a.m.

And in case you need a refresher, here's our live blog of its previous meeting and four problems with the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group.

I'll be interested to see the next draft report from Moody's, because the last preliminary executive summary got verbally trashed by Chairman Robert Lang, who, as he told us last time, is from New York, not Virginia.

There's no report on the agenda, but the agenda does include a presentation on "Strategic Issues and Initiatives Related to Education in Nevada."

Not sure how hearing new presentations are going to square with the LCB saying that a final report will be done by Sept. 15 or why new presentations are even necessary, but we'll be there to let you know.

For now, it just looks like taxpayers will be spending $100,000 for union members, government officials and favored private businesses to create a spending wish list that would only ADD to the $1.5 billion in new taxes that Sen. Steven Horsford wants to pass in the 2011 Legislative Session.

Read more:
Visions of tax increases
The stakeholder two-step
Puppetmasters on the throne
Nevada's future is at stake
A ‘vision' of extortion and control
IFC to hide behind unelected stakeholders
Nevadans deserve honesty from IFC

Horsford now opposes a corporate income tax

I'm going to have a lot more on this Las Vegas Sun article featuring Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, but let's start with this nugget — and bit of good news.

But he [Horsford] also said he does not support a corporate income tax, which he had advocated in the past, calling it more volatile than he had previously thought.

So let's review.

During the 2009 session, Horsford introduced legislation to study the creation a corporate income tax. During the same session, Horsford also said that Nevada needed to broaden its tax base and suggested creating a "net profit tax" (just a different name for a corporate income tax).

Horsford also initiated the now-defunct tax study to find ways to broaden and stabilize Nevada's tax base.

At some point between then and now, Horsford realized that a corporate income tax is the most volatile of the major taxes states use (see here for more evidence of the volatility of corporate income taxes from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, p72 on the page or p10 in the PDF).

And based on this new information, he changed his position and now opposes a corporate income tax.

Good for him.

In this case, Horsford did exactly what you would want a lawmaker to do. He submitted his policy position, a corporate income tax, and his goal, stabilizing Nevada's tax structure, to the available evidence. The evidence shows that a corporate income tax exacerbates revenue volatility, and so he reversed his position.

While there's plenty I disagree with Horsford about — starting with his call for a $1.5 billion tax hike in 2011 — he now has the correct policy position on corporate income taxes, and I give him credit for having enough integrity to publicly change his stance.

In this case, other lawmakers who have publicly supported a corporate income tax, like Senate candidate and current Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, should follow Horsford's lead.

Can you be fired for not spending your employer's money?

Only if you work for the government. Specifically, the Department of Education.

While ED [Education Department] officials said they understood the reason many districts were investing in equipment and technology, they expressed little tolerance for those who had yet to make significant use of their ARRA funds. When a caller asked, "What happens to unspent ARRA money after 2011," Policelli [Maura Policelli, ED's senior advisor for external affairs] shot back: "You will be fired."

"You will literally be fired, whoever you are," she said. "You must spend this money. If your school district or state is not in a budget crisis, then that is excellent news for you. Most of you are, and we're trying to help you make sure you maximize those dollars in the best way possible. They simply must be used. They were passed by Congress during an economic crisis, and it is your obligation as stewards of taxpayer dollars to spend it wisely, appropriately and in any way possible to help defray the budget crunch a lot of you are facing." [Emphasis added]

That's right. Don't spend the government's money, and you will be fired. No wonder we're facing a $13 trillion deficit. No wonder Nevada has nearly tripled inflation-adjusted, per-pupil education spending in the last 50 years without improving student achievement. No wonder there's no correlation between spending and student achievement.


Why do we have a federal Department of Education again?

Reid, Sandoval agree: Don't raise taxes in 2011

Bookmark this interview. We may need to reference it during the next legislative session.

Over the weekend, the Las Vegas Sun posed 10 questions to gubernatorial candidates Rory Reid and Brian Sandoval.

The second question concerned taxes, and both candidates said that they wouldn't support raising taxes in 2011.

Is there any circumstance in which you would consider raising taxes or renewing taxes set to expire next year?

Reid: Now is not the time to raise taxes on Nevada families. People are hurting, with unemployment and foreclosures at an all-time high, and we can’t aggravate the situation further by taking money out of families’ pockets. However, I will not cut education further because strong schools are the key to building a better economic future and attracting new jobs.

Sandoval: No. I believe that raising taxes is exactly the wrong thing to do. As a former judge, I look at the evidence, and nowhere have I seen any evidence that raising taxes creates jobs.

Kudos to the Sun for asking about the expiring tax increases as well. Remember that extending a tax increase is … a tax increase.

Now the real question is: What would each candidate do after the election?

Two years ago, Sen. Steven Horsford and Sen. Bill Raggio both said that they wouldn't support raising taxes. Just a few months later, though, both supported a record-setting, billion-dollar, job-killing, secret tax increase during the 2009 legislative session. And they weren't the only politicians who lied about their position on taxes.

Is either Reid or Sandoval misleading the public (or himself) on his position on taxes? I don't know, but taxpayers who are concerned about legislators trying to raise taxes in 2011 need to ask each of the candidates again and again about their position on taxes and how they plan to reduce or reform Nevada's spending. (NPRI's alternative budget is a good place to start.)

Also, with news breaking last week that the tax study is now just going to be a wish list of government spending, both Reid and Sandoval should consider the recommendations in NPRI's tax study, "One Sound State."

And as the only current tax study available, “One Sound State” is also a valuable reference tool for candidates and citizens. For instance, did you know that Nevada's Modified Business Tax is much more volatile than our sales or gaming taxes? You would if you read "One Sound State."

Also, the Transparent Nevada blog has a post on Reid’s and Sandoval's answers about requiring transparency in union negotiating.