MUTH’S TRUTHS

In 2006, Nevada’s governor signed the following statement: “I, Jim Gibbons, pledge to the taxpayers of Nevada and all the people of this State, that I will oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes.” Short, sweet, plain, simple. Even a member of the Nevada State Board of Education should be able to understand it. However…

In the 2007 session of the Legislature, a bill to form a committee in Washoe County to weigh various possible tax hikes, ostensibly for school construction and repairs, and then let the voters give the tax hikes a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down, made it to the governor’s desk. The “people,” by the way, didn’t ask for this; politicians did. And the bill creating this tax hike commission was clearly an effort to raise taxes. Yet the governor signed the bill against our advice. Unfortunately.

This week, the tax hike commission voted unanimously - including the member appointed to the commission by Gov. Jim Gibbons - for a plan to raise sales taxes and vehicle registration fees. Those politicians in Washoe County who favor raising taxes will now aggressively go out - using the soapboxes afforded them by their elected positions and probably even some tax dollars - to persuade taxpayers to cough up even more money for “schools.”

“Voters will need to understand that there doesn’t seem to be another credible solution,” opines the Reno Gazette-Journal this morning. “The district can’t cut staff or operations…”

Well, the first and obvious question is, “Why not?”

Are we to believe there are no non-teaching staff positions in the Washoe County school district which aren’t critical to the core mission of teaching our kids their ABC’s? Are we to believe the school district doesn’t spend any money on any operations which aren’t devoted to their core mission of teaching our kids readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic?

But beyond that, there’s an even better solution which wouldn’t cost taxpayers any money but, apparently, was never given any serious consideration by the commission which went into this discussion with the pre-conceived notion that taxes had to be raised: Education Tax Rebate Checks (ETRC).

Let’s say we’re right now giving the public schools $7,000 per pupil in Washoe County. As an alternative, let’s give, say, $5,000 to any parent who will enroll their child in a school other than a public school, with the school district keeping the extra two grand for students it will no longer be educating. In the business world, this could be thought of as making a “profit.”

As parents cash in their $5,000 ETRCs (after all, they’ve been paying taxes for funding education all their working lives and will continue to do so long after their kids graduate), class sizes in the public schools will automatically shrink. And isn’t that something public school teachers clamber for ad nauseum?

This, of course, will also alleviate the need to build any new public schools at taxpayer expense, freeing up cash to pump into repairs and upgrades of existing schools. Indeed, if enough parents elect to cash in their ETRCs and opt out of the public school system, it will be possible to actually close down some existing public schools and consolidate operations - another huge savings to taxpayers.

This option, of course, will never be considered by the powers-that-be as long as they are given the option of raising taxes instead.

I wish Gov. Gibbons had forced their hand a year ago by vetoing that bill creating this tax hike commission, but voters can still have the final say in November by casting a ballot which says, “Read our lips, no new taxes. And we mean it!”

Posted on April 25th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada