MUTH’S TRUTHS

Who didn’t see this coming a mile away? The governor sure did.

At a budget summit in Carson City a few weeks ago, Gov. Gibbons warned that whenever there’s talk of budget cuts in Washington, the first thing the big-government liberals threaten to do is shut down politically popular places, like the Washington Monument and Yellowstone National Park, in order to tug on the taxpayers’ heartstrings as well as their purse strings.

And sure enough, Western Nevada Community College (yes, it’s still a community college despite the silly name change taking “Community” out of the community college name) President Carol Lucey, taking a page from the DC playbook, is warning ominously in the Nevada Appeal today that cuts in the university budget would force her to “close and mothball” all the college’s rural campuses.

According to Lucey, closing the rural centers would save $200,000 and closing the Douglas County campus would save $84,000.

Hmmmm. $284,000, huh? Isn’t that about how much Nevada taxpayers are paying UNR’s athletic director?

According to Lucey, an 8 percent cut in the university budget would mean eliminating 5 academic faculty positions for a savings of $334,000.

Hmmm. Isn’t $334,000 about the amount of money Nevada taxpayers are paying UNR’s football coach?

According to Lucey, an 8 percent cut would mean eliminating 3 tech-support positions for a savings of $336,000.

Hmmmm. Isn’t that about the amount of money Nevada taxpayers are paying UNR’s basketball coach?

And that doesn’t even include what we’re paying for similar non-academic positions at UNLV.

So don’t tell me the ONLY thing the university system can do to cut its budget is to close and mothball rural campuses. That’s bull. They’re only talking about closing rural campuses hoping to sucker Nevada taxpayers into opposing budget cuts. It’s a dishonest ruse.

I’m not saying I’m opposed to college sports, but we’re supposed to be talking about “higher education” here. If budget cuts are necessary, we should be cutting high-priced athletic programs first, not rural campuses. Shouldn’t that be our priority?

Posted on December 11th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada