Sam Shad, host of the Nevada Newsmakers television show, resisted pressure to delve into private matters better left private during his exclusive interview with Gov. Jim Gibbons on Wednesday, and as a result viewers were treated to an unprecedented look at the governor’s agenda for the remainder of his first term in office. By divorcing himself from the temptation to get sidetracked by non-issues of a personal nature, Shad gave Nevadans an interview of public policy substance which should have fiscal conservatives jumping for joy.
The governor started out by embracing the essence of state Sen. Bob Beers “Tax and Spending Control” (TASC) formula whereby spending increases in next year’s budget would be capped at the combined rate of population growth plus inflation. That’s a pretty good start.
The governor then pointed out that there have been no budget “cuts” this year. In fact, all he’s done is reduce the increase the government was hoping to get. Gibbons noted that after the reductions he ordered, the amount of money being pumped into government operations still increased by a rather healthy 12 percent.
The governor next announced that he was forming a Nevada version of Ronald Reagan’s “Grace Commission” - a panel of fiscal conservatives who will take a truckload of red pens and pore through the state budget lining out waste, fraud and abuse, as well as privatizing some government services. “Open up the Yellow Pages of the phone book and if you can find a private sector industry providing a service, government should not be competing against them,” the governor declared. Amen and hallelujah.
This commission, if done properly, is going to shut somebody up – either those who say there’s nowhere to cut in the budget so we have to raise taxes, or those who say there’s plenty of fat in the budget so no new taxes are necessary. This is a serious public policy discussion long overdue in our tax-and-spend Legislature.
When next asked about the idea of posting the government’s checkbook on a public website, enabling taxpayers to see each and every check written - to whom, for what and for how much - the governor responded, “I think that’s a great idea.”
Unfortunately, the governor suggested that the estimated cost of launching such a transparency website was too high. I’m not buying it. In a billion dollar budget there’s absolutely no way you can’t find $250,000 or more so that taxpayers can see exactly where their money is going. In fact, I’m willing to bet that within hours of publishing such a website, Nevada taxpayers will find ten times the cost of launching it in savings. The cost of developing such a website is a pittance compared to the inevitable savings taxpayers will enjoy.
On the Sierra Health/United Health merger and concerns that it will all but wipe out competition in the health insurance market in Nevada, Shad asked the governor about embracing an idea being championed at the federal level by Congressman John Shadegg of Arizona whereby Nevadans would be able to shop for insurance policies available in other states. This would be sort of like what was done years ago when deregulation allowed for multi-state banking. The governor said he was absolutely in favor of such market-based competition which would result in lower premiums for consumers.
With time running out, Shad then launched into a lightning round of policy questions from which we discovered that the governor opposes proposed ballot initiatives to raise taxes (no surprise there), supports a proposed initiative which would require a 2/3 super-majority vote of the people to pass any ballot initiative to raise taxes, supports a proposed initiative to provide parents with tuition assistance to send their kids to private schools if they don’t think their child’s public school is getting the job done, and favors a proposal whereby surplus revenue from the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority would be redirected to schools and roads. You go, Guv!
Alas, because Shad wasted so much time asking the governor serious public policy questions, we didn’t find out what Gov. Gibbons thinks about Britney Spears’ latest travails. Oh, well. Maybe he can get Gibbons’ co-Chief-of-Staff Diane Cornwall on the show next week to field that one.
Posted on March 6th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
12:30 A.M. - Democrats on the House Budget Committee made history today. Here’s just a sampling of what they achieved:
• Passed the largest tax increase in American history;
• Raised federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars to grow government programs;
• Refused to stop earmarks and begin real reform;
• Raised taxes on children by slashing the $1,000 per child tax credit in half; and
• Refused to rein in entitlement spending in order to save Medicare for future generations.
Yes, it was an historic day, but unfortunately America’s workers and middle-income families will be footing the bill for all of this in the form of massive tax hikes, exploding deficits and overburdened entitlement programs.
Every single Republican voted NO on the Democrats’ fiscally irresponsible budget; every Democrat voted YES.
11:50 P.M. - Republicans: Social Security Money Should Go to Social Security ; Democrats: NO!
This is highway robbery… but I forget … we have millions of illegals that depend on us ~ and slackers that live off the government.
How Much Will the Democrats’ Budget Raise Your Taxes?
From the Office of the Budget Committee Republicans:
The House Democrats’ Budget, expected to be on the floor next week, will impose on American workers and businesses a $683 billion tax hike – the largest in history. The table below illustrates how much more the average taxpayer will be paying on an annual basis under this budget:
http://republicanleader.house.gov/blog/?p=157
THIS IS A LOT OF MONEY PER YEAR! DANG!!
I love the idea of a Nevada Grace Commission! Start it tomorrow! Put Muth on it! Chuck, make sure that all legal, State and local government notices are published on one (1) State run website instead of published in ink in a local paper!!! The amount of money that will be saved by State and local governments, and those in legal processes, will be HUGE! Millions of dollars can be saved (and, the greenies will be happy because there is less ink and paper wasted on this 19th Century industry).
Thanks.
Kerri,
I’m looking at line item 650, and budget outlay for SS goes from $616.633 in 2008 to $807.646 in 2013.
Too, I note Veterans on line item 700 expenditures goes from $83.551 in 2008 to $104.266 in 2013.
All of our borrowing for the past 6 years is catchin up with us; Line item 900, Net Interest spending goes from $349.296 in 2008 to $436.292 in 2013.
I note too, that it balances the busget in 2012. And, it eliminates all most all of most estate taxes.
It can all be read here, H.ConRes
oh, PS, the vote was 22-16..as for “slackers that live off the government.”, I assume you mean Kellog Brown and Root (defense constractor set uyp in the Caribbean whose employees pay NO taxes, no social security and no medicare/aid on $6,000,000,000 in payroll), or maybe Blackhawk Corp who does the same. Kerri, you understand that MOST of the US governemtn money is not given to welfare queens but it distributed to corporations, who rip us off, right?
As for your rightful concern of earmarks, I note that Heller, Ensign and Porter combined in FY 2008 to sponsor or co-sponsor $500,000,000,000 (1/2 billion $), in earmarks. Fiscal conservatives?!
Why just last year it was decreed that the Democrats are passing the largets tax increase in history!
republicanpressrelease
I’m wondering, is this a chicken little moment, deja vu?