The Las Vegas Sun has taken to referring to Gov. Jim Gibbons as “The Gridlock Governor” for his refusal to break his Taxpayer Protection Pledge and agree to a tax hike to fund union-only highway construction projects paying above-market union wages. A more appropriate nickname might be “The Sticks By His Guns Governor.”
I’ve heard any number of proposals for funding the supposed $4 billion deficit for highway construction which don’t include tax increases. What the Governor and the Legislature need to do now is take the information the blue-ribbon panel on roads came up with and (a) determine if we REALLY “need” all of the highway construction projects which result in the supposed $4 billion deficit, and if so (b) come up with a comprehensive plan to fund them without tax increases.
Only AFTER every other option has been exhausted should a citizen initiative be launched to see if Nevada voters want to pay higher taxes or do without some of the road projects. If gridlock is as bad as they say it is in Las Vegas…and it is…voters will be all too happy to sign a petition to put a tax hike on the ballot and vote for it, right?
The Legislature should NOT put such a tax hike on the ballot themselves. It should not be easier to put a tax hike on the ballot than it is to put a tax restraint or a spending restraint initiative on the ballot.
For supporters of a tax hike for highway construction to qualify such an initiative, they’d probably want to shoot for at least 100,000 signatures on a petition. That would probably cost them somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000-$300,000 to use a professional signature-gathering firm. That’s chump change when you’re looking at raising $4 BILLION in higher taxes.
Raising taxes ON the people should be initiated BY the people. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
Posted on April 27th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
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