Budget Watch Nevada

What are we to make of Saturday’s article in the R-J reporting that a recent poll shows Governor Gibbons’ approval rating is sucking hind teat? Not much, really.

From where I sit — right of center and philosophically grounded — I think his job so far has been lackluster. But you and I actually FOLLOW politics fairly closely, unlike the average Joe Voter out there, so we have reason to be displeased. But what about our neighbors who don’t pay much attention?

I think that the general public is so used to hearing emotion-provoking rhetoric, that unless the Guv is saying “we need to kill rapists and spend another billion on government programs and regulate every drop of every liquid you put in your body and search schools for terrorists,” then they think he isn’t doing ANYTHING. If all you hear is that he promised not to raise taxes, then it’s just mundane, yawn-inducing stuff. So when it comes around to answering a pollster, most people really don’t have a strong opinion either way.

I’d bet more people know how much the Mayweather/De la Hoya fight costs on Pay-Per-View than know how much they pay in property taxes. People just don’t pay that much attention to local politics.

So what’s YOUR approval rating of Gov. Gibbons, and more importantly, why? I’ll give him a C- grade because his proposed budget includes an increase in spending of $648 million over last biennium, and I haven’t heard him talk of actually CUTTING any SOCIAL PROGRAMS or EASING BURDENSOME REGULATIONS. Feel free to share your opinion here on this blog.

How can the Guv get a better grade? Easy. Just follow some of the suggested cuts found in www.BudgetWatchNevada.com.