MUTH’S TRUTHS

Those who point out that Gov. Jim Gibbons would be hard pressed to sink much lower than his current 21 point approval rating and, therefore, has nowhere to go but up, underestimate this administration’s uncanny ability to shoot itself in the foot and cause additional damage at the drop of a hat. That being said, Gibbons has recently laid the foundation for a comeback.

First, the uneasy truce in Gibbons vs. Gibbons has held up for the last few weeks despite the governor’s best efforts to reignite the brouhaha with his public “dating” and his “phone text” obsession. The First Couple’s messy divorce has been both fodder for tabloid journalism and a political and policy distraction. Keeping a lid on this bubbling cauldron won’t be easy, but if he can manage it, the governor will likely win back some of the support he’s lost since filing to terminate his marriage in March.

Secondly, the governor recently took the most important step in fixing any problem: Acknowledging that you even have a problem. Gibbons took this important step by canning his top two senior staffers - Dianne Cornwall and Mike Dayton - who were unable to play nice with each other in the sandbox for the first 18 months of this administration. The pair were largely responsible for what often appeared to be a gaffe-a-day political version of the Keystone Kops. It was like watching a blind man run through a forest of low-hanging branches.

“The Replacements,” led by new Chief-of-Staff Josh Hicks, will enjoy a brief honeymoon and short window of opportunity to demonstrate that things have really, really, really changed, thereby helping the governor get his groove back. If the new gang can successfully shed itself of the paranoid bunker mentality which has existed at Team Gibbons since the final week of the 2006 campaign, settle on a unified message and coordinate it with allies, and engage proactively both the media and their political opponents, the 2009 legislative session could still be widely successful - setting the governor up for what, at this point, has to be considered an unlikely re-election bid in 2010.

Which brings us to the third and most important factor working in the governor’s favor: The Tax Pledge. This is the rock upon which the entire Gibbons administration is built. And with few exceptions - where he appeared he might be going a little wobbly - the governor has remained rock-solid in keeping faithful to the promise he made to voters in 2006 not to raise their taxes.

PERSONNEL IS POLICY

In the “old days,” under the previous chiefs-of-staff, the governor’s tax pledge was actually working against him in the court of public opinion in some quarters. The “no new taxes” pledge often appeared to be more of a shield than a sword. Instead of rushing toward the sound of the cannons on the tax issue, the governor appeared defensive, sometimes invoking a non-existent “vote of the people” loophole to give himself some wiggle room with the press and administration critics such as University Chancellor Jim “Income Tax” Rogers.

However, concurrently with the exit of Cornwall and Dayton a week ago, came the Return of a Man Called Horse. No wait, that was a different movie. I meant the Return of a Man Called Uithoven (EYE-toe-ven). As in former Gibbons campaign manager Robert Uithoven - who somehow held the Gibbons campaign together just long enough to pull it over the finish line first on election day in 2006.

Uithoven is no shrinking conservative violet and is smart enough to know the value of maintaining good, professional relations with ALL members of the media - old and new; friendly and hostile. And Uithoven, isn’t about to allow Democrats to continue taking free potshots at his governor without having the fire returned.

Indeed, Uithoven is now leading the counter-offensive of Gibbons allies, pointing out today that Democrats and other critics who complain about the governor’s steadfast opposition to tax hikes haven’t had the guts to actually propose a tax hike plan of their own as an alternative to “pathetic” spending cuts.

Folks such as Democrat Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley have thus far gotten away with merely complaining about Nevada’s “revenue structure” without saying specifically how she’d change it. While seemingly taking a state income tax off the table (real profile in courage there, huh?), Buckley has refused to specify exactly which new taxes she DOES favor. In other words, she’s trying to have her cake and eat it, too.

“Every single day that goes by provides a new opportunity for the governor’s opponents to introduce an alternative to budget cuts,” Uithoven tells Anjeanette Damon of the Reno Gazette-Journal, clearly referencing Buckley. “Yet, a lot of these people choose to just criticize the governor and then hide under a rock. And they get away with it, and they shouldn’t.”

Amen. It should be put up or shut time. Democrats who want a bigger, more expensive government should be compelled to say exactly what taxes they want raised and on whom. If they don’t have the strength of their convictions to go on record with their tax increase proposals, then they have no credibility on this issue and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

At the same time, Republican legislators who continue to refuse to make the same tax promise as their Republican governor should constantly be asked, “Why not?” Why aren’t they willing to tell Nevada’s taxpayers, in no uncertain terms, that they won’t vote to raise taxes? No free ride. And no “read my lips.” We want it in writing. Preferably in blood. Too many Nevada Republicans have historically been no more trustworthy on tax hikes than Democrats.

GOOD POLICY IS GOOD POLITICS

Critics of the governor have slammed the Tax Pledge as nothing more than a simplistic, ideological slogan, not a serious policy position. I couldn’t disagree more. This is, at its core, the heart of a critical public policy question: What is the proper role of government?

If you’re a liberal who believes in an active, energetic government, then you must support taking more and more money from taxpayers to fund all the wonderful programs you think are the proper role of government.

If, however, you’re a conservative who believes in a strictly limited government constrained to providing only necessary, constitutionally-permissible functions, then the only way to slow down the growth of the beast is to cut off its flow of oxygen - which in the case of government is tax dollars.

While critics may not agree with the governor’s stated refusal to super-size Nevada’s government by heaping new layers of taxes on its buffet plate, one cannot argue that this is not a conscious and serious policy position. And this policy position has FORCED the government to finally do exactly what fiscal conservatives have been fighting for over the years: Tighten the belt. Shrink leviathan. Set spending priorities. Do more with less.

The fact remains that the Legislature in 2007 passed a budget which was a billion dollars more expensive than the state’s taxpayers could afford. Since that time, more than a billion dollars has been rolled back from that gargantuan budget increase without the average citizen noticing any difference. Obviously there was still a lot of fat on the bone which no one was willing to look for until they were forced to look for it by the current revenue shortfall.

To be fair, Gov. Gibbons was complicit in exasperating exacerbating the current fiscal “crisis” by proposing a pumped-up budget in 2007 which far exceeded the combined rate of population growth plus inflation. To his credit, however, the governor now acknowledges his role in compounding the problem and doesn’t appear inclined to make the same mistake twice. “I’m not going to shy away from that,” the governor is quoted as telling the Reno Gazette-Journal today. “I carried it (the 2007 budget proposal). But I want to learn from my mistakes.”

Bravo.

No new taxes. Good policy. Good politics. Engage the opposition. Force opponents to present an alternative. Force them to specify their tax hikes. Keep tightening the government’s belt. Starve the beast. And whatever you do, settle your marital troubles once and for all and keep your personal life out of the public eye. This is the path to political resurrection for Gov. Jim Gibbons. Will he take the “right” path? Stay tuned, Batfans.

Posted on July 5th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada