Budget Watch Nevada

With all the violent crimes taking place in certain areas of the valley, and with white-collar crimes such as fraud and identity theft running rampant, why do legislators, prosecutors, and courts continue to waste time on victimless “crimes?”

It was reported in Thursday’s R-J that some guy had been sentenced to jail for growing marijuana plants in his home to sell to patients who need the herb to ameliorate symptoms they suffer from a variety of harsh diseases such as M.S. and cancer. Smoking this innocuous, natural substance is proven far more safe than many prescription drugs that physicians are happy to prescribe willy-nilly.

Just reading the following passage from the article shows the silliness of laws that are nearly impossible to apply fairly and which harm peaceful, mostly-lawful citizens in cases where THERE IS NO VICTIM:

“Werner has said he grew the marijuana to sell to patients with medical marijuana licenses, in part to protest a state law which he said is too restrictive for disabled patients who have trouble safely obtaining the drug legally.

State law allows licensed marijuana patients to grow the plant or choose one person to cultivate it for them, but that caretaker cannot provide the drug for any other patients.”

So a small-time farmer is offering his small-time customers a product which they need and want and can’t find in the grocery store and don’t have the wherewithal to grow on their own. Sounds like a simple exchange between a willing buyer and a willing seller to me. Free market economics at its best. But of course your government can’t leave well enough alone, so they have to butt in.

Even if you don’t smoke marijuana (this author doesn’t either), you should appreciate the misallocation of precious and expensive public resources that go into investigating, proving, prosecuting, and punishing victimless crimes. Puff on that thought, inhale freedom into your liberty-deprived lungs, and start promoting smaller, more sensible government.

My weeklong trip to New Hampshire to investigate the Free State Project has been eye-opening and inspirational. Activists here are motivated, organized, and – best of all – effective.

In under 4 short years, a diversified band of liberty-loving citizens from New Hampshire and a couple hundred more who recently moved to the state have changed the political landscape for the better.

This group of “Free Staters” is a loose-knit bunch of anarchists, minarchists, libertarians, Ron Paul Republicans, small government Democrats, housewives, and students. Some of them look like hippies, some like recluses, some like runway models, and some like Wall Street bankers. Their motivations and their pet issues are personal and varied, but they come together on any issue that pits the state against individual rights (the right to life, liberty, property, and self determination are still sacrosanct here). The New Hampshire Liberty Alliance provides a virtual community of fellow activists that provides campaign training, lobbying education and training, recruiting, research, and volunteer resources for organizations and candidates who fall under the pro-liberty umbrella.

Compared to Nevada, this group is well organized and well manned. They typically have 30-50 activists show up for any meeting. There are 20 researchers that follow legislation each year and alert the membership if there is an anti-liberty bill in committee. Then they send people to speak out against the bill at the legislature and start a telephone campaign to committee members.

It’s the same for LP and gun owners meetings or homeschoolers meetings. With 400 state assemblymen and 26 senators, the legislators are very accessible and responsive to voters.

New Hampshire politics provides one of the best venues for grassroots democracy and representative government in the country. And their constitutionally weak governor and legislature keep it that way.

If we in the Silver State, with 50% higher population, could replicate the Granite State’s activist base, we would have a real counterweight to the heavy-handed special interest influence of the teachers unions, public employees unions, and the NV Resort Association lobbyists. Even though New Hampshire currently suffers under Democrat majorities in both houses and the governorship, they still are far more conservative and taxpayer-friendly than Nevada’s “Republican” caucus. We should be so lucky to have such Democrats in our capitol.

If you are tired of being on the losing end of all pro-liberty, smaller-government battles, there is an alternative: move to New Hampshire and join the winning team for “liberty in our lifetime.”

Imagine 300 pro-liberty activists in one place. Now imagine 10 or 20 or 30 times that. I know – sounds like Nirvana, like paradise, like a good start.

That’s what’s happening right now in New Hampshire. I am reporting live from Gunstock Campground, in the Lakes region of the Granite State, where the state motto is “Live Free or Die.” The Free State Project, whose motto is “Liberty in our lifetime,” is hosting its annual “PorcFest” gathering of “Porcupines” from around the country. There are over 300 attendees registered for the weekend, with about a third of that already here (Wednesday), touring the state, discussing job and housing opportunities and engaging in lengthy, informed discussions on state and national politics.

Standing around the campfire you’ll hear conversations about Ron Paul, Ayn Rand, Ludwig Von Mises, Jefferson, and Jason Sorens, and if you look around you notice more than just fireflies dancing among the tall pine trees; you’ll also see several of the Porcupines exercising and celebrating the Second Amendment by openly wearing firearms on their belts. We all feel very safe that no one is going to try to rob our group.

While Porcupines’ (the FSP’s mascot, the porcupine, was chosen because it is a gentle creature who just wants to be left alone, but you certainly don’t want to cross it) political banter bounces from the Iraq war to the war on drugs to right-to-carry to taxes to wearing helmets and seat belts, one common thread is a desire for smaller government and more personal freedom. But unlike many libertarian-type discussion groups, these people are doing something about it.

Over 400 “Free Staters” are already living in NH. One has been elected to the state legislature and one to a local town council. Countless others have run in political races or have helped in others’ campaigns. They’ve opened businesses and built homes. They have been welcomed by the governor and by the numerous pro-freedom groups that are active politically around the state.

While we in Nevada have pockets of libertarian-leaning, Ron Paul-type activists and pundits, including Chuck Muth, Eric Odom, the Libertarian Party of Nevada and Clark County, Liberty Watch - The Magazine, and others, just imagine how great it would be if we had 10 times that many actively involved in Silver State politics. That’s what the Free State Project intends to do in New Hampshire, a state of under 1.5 million in population. Check it out at www.FreeStateProject.org.

In case you missed Citizen Outreach’s letter to Governor Gibbons, it bears repeating.

Chuck Muth takes Jim Gibbons to task on his ATR pledge to not raise taxes on Nevadans. While some conservatives applaud the Guv for drawing a line in the sand and standing up to the big spenders in the legislature (no longer just the D’s; now pork spending is a bi-partisan sport), Chuck points out that Gibbons still went soft on allowing the voters in Washoe County to vote themselves a tax increase.

The best part of Muth’s letter, though, is a challenge to look at spending CUTS in the budget and to effect transparency in earmarks and other areas of state spending. Chuck recommends to the governor’s office:

“The establishment of a website detailing state government spending which, similar to an ongoing project at the federal level, will allow taxpayers in Nevada to “google” their government and what it’s spending their money on” and . . .

“The creation of a Nevada version of Ronald Reagan’s “Grace Commission” to identify significant spending cuts in the current budget.”

That speaks directly to what we do here at Budget Watch Nevada. In fact, if the governor were to heed Chuck’s request for such a “Grace Commission,” then your author should be the number one candidate for a seat at that table.

Will it happen? Who knows? Can you help make it happen? Absolutely. We are still a small state, and your opinion matters. Write the governor’s office and have your neighbor do the same . . . and let’s make a difference in the future of the Silver State.

As much as I want to support Governor Gibbons’ holding the line on taxes, he still is a Bush-like “conservative,” submitting and approving a spending plan that is the highest ever for Nevada, some 18% higher than that of only 2 years ago. The spending INCREASE is way higher than would be justified under a TASC-like enhancement of population growth plus inflation. The real problem here is that the Guv and the Ledge spend every last dollar that is projected to be collected through taxes. There is absolutely no fiscal restraint shown. They never even talk about cutting out wasteful programs . . . NEVER. This is a real problem that will take real leadership to address, and I don’t see it coming from Carson City any time soon.

A vote earlier this week in the NH legislature (Senate) to require seat belt use in automobiles died in committee. Hooray for New Hampshire! It’s nice to see a voice of reason from the state whose motto is “Live free or die.”

The Union Leader newspaper reported, “The bill, HB 802, passed the House last month by 13 votes. New Hampshire is the last state in the country without a mandatory seatbelt law, although restraints are required for children and teenagers.

Under the bill, a seatbelt law violation would be a primary offense, which allows a police officer to stop and ticket anyone for not wearing a seatbelt, or any driver who carried unbelted passengers.

The bill has pitted public safety advocates who argue seatbelts save lives against critics who deride it as an example of the ‘nanny state.’

Clegg said after the committee vote, ‘I don’t think we should ever fear punishment as a reason to do anything. Government shouldn’t be something everybody is afraid of. If seatbelts are a good idea, then we ought to educate people so they’ll use them.’”

Well said, gentlemen. If only we had such pro-liberty thinking in Carson City! Senator Dennis Nolan recently spent a lot of time and energy trying to pass a stupid bill making it a primary offense to not wear your seat belt in Nevada.

Is it a good idea to wear your safety belt? Probably. Do seat belts save lives? Probably. But if your tyrannical government made laws for everything that saves lives, then it would be illegal to drink alcohol, or eat deep-fried foods, or smoke cigarettes, or cross the street, or go hiking in the desert in summertime, or own a swimming pool, or … well, you get the picture. All sorts of behavior can lead to possible injury or death, but what business is that of the government?

What ever happened to personal responsibility? Let’s try that for a change.

They must be reading BudgetWatchNevada up in Carson City. Nevada’s preeminent e-pundit Chuck Muth reported today that “In introducing his executive budget last January, Gov. Gibbons asked for $2.1 million in “one-shot” funds from the budget surplus for the not-yet-open children’s museum in Reno. Lawmakers reached a deal on how to divvy up the pork yesterday, reports the Nevada Appeal today, and the Reno children’s museum will only be getting $1 million in taxpayer dollars, while another $1 million will now go to the children’s museum in Las Vegas.”
For three months my taxpayer advocacy website, www.BudgetWatchNevada.com, has listed pork expenditures and budgetary items in need of being cut. I’ve suggested starving the Department of Cultural Affairs, under which children’s museums would fall, for some time.
Now, if they would just start following more of the recommendations, we’d all be much, much better off.