FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JUNE 7, 2001
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
State to squeak by on 'less money than we started with.' Heh, heh
And so the Year 2001 Nevada legislative session has ground to an end
with the enactment of a record $3.8 billion two-year budget -- swelling t
$10.4 billion when federal funds are added in -- all in all 20 percent
higher than Nevada's (start ital)current(end ital) state government budget.
Remember all that talk about a "budget crisis" -- how education funding
was going to have to be "cut by $121 million," with school officials
melodramatically waving their arms and ululating that this would mean the
end of art and music classes and after-school sports? (Funny how they
always threaten to cut that stuff -- not grounds maintenance, or a dozen
assistant superintendents in charge of paper-pushing, or the budget for
staff travel and out-of-state seminars.)
Well, just over half of Nevada's total state funding -- $2 billion -- is
earmarked for Nevada's schools, including $13.4 million to start building a
brand-new state college in Henderson, which is necessary (despite the fact
it would cost far less to simply expand existing community colleges)
because ... well, because Richard Perkins of Henderson is a powerful state
legislator, and Henderson wants its own state college, even though they're
going to end up siting it in a derelict industrial park.
Yep, these boys were really turning their pockets inside out. Amazing
they could afford (start ital)sandwiches(end ital).
State support for local public schools will increase over the next two
years on a per-pupil basis from a current level of $3,804 to $3,991 -- an
increase of 5 percent even after the anticipated growth of the student
population is taken into account.
"This is one of the few times we've ended the session with the
realization that we have less money than what we started with," commented
Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, who went on to add that "many
people felt we were on an impossible mission" to make up the "revenue
shortfall" which will see the state spend 20 percent more in the next two
years.
Yes, you read that right. And no, so far as can be determined Sen. Raggio
is not insane; he's merely a politician. Since lawmakers at one point faced
the horrifying prospect of being able to slather only 17 percent more
purloined wealth on their favorite projects than they do now (instead of 20
percent more), they promptly began baying and moaning about facing a 3
percent "budget cut" ... a calamity avoided only when they decided to stick
it to Nevada corporations (and car-rental firms are still in line for
(start ital)another(end ital) hit) with higher taxes and fees.
"Public safety," which includes a booming prison system made necessary by
the state's onerous drug possessionlaws (even though they were just
relaxed) gets $437 million -- up about 20 percent. Another $1.1 billion
goes to "human services," the newest absurd euphemism (did anyone think the
state was funding a lot of "animal services" or "vegetable services"?) for
welfare, handouts to pensioners, and psychiatric mumbo-jumbo -- up (start
ital)more(end ital) than 20 percent.
The state's nearly 16,000 employees were taken care of with a 4 percent
pay hike next year ... followed by another 4 percent raise in the secod
budget year. And for about half the state's work force, pay will increase
by an (start ital)additional(end ital) 5 percent this July 1 because of the
addition of another step in the state pay scale.
Do most of the taxpayers footing the bill for all this largesse expect to
see their own paychecks go up by 13 percent in the next two years? Of
course not. If there's any "budget crisis" in Nevada, it begins to look
like that "crisis" will occur only in the "budgets" of hard-working
families who are shelling outto feather the nests of these long-suffering
bureaucrats.
And by the way, in the special session which the governor will now call
to handle redistricting -- a minor matter the lawmakers just couldn't find
time to get to, so busy were they debating the new state animal and whether
it should be illegal for young people to play with laser-pointers or turn
up their boom boxes too loud -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno,
says one matter still urgently to be dealt with is AB460, raising the taxes
of rent-a-car companies by $24 million to fund ... oh, you guessed it,
didn't you? ... a 3 percent bonus for public school teachers next year,
followed by at least a 2 percent raise in the second year -- or maybe 4
percent, if the new state business taxes rake in enough.
Hee-Hah! Oh, sorry. Cue funeral dirge -- woe is us. The state faces a
"budget crisis." Why, there's hardly any money left to buy the poor
schoolkids scissors and construction paper. The state now has "less money
than it used to." Oh, woe is us.
Snicker, snicker.
Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. Subscribe to his monthly newsletter by sending $72 to
Privacy Alert, 1475 Terminal Way, Suite E for Easy, Reno, NV 89502 -- or
dialing 775-348-8591. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the
Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at 1-800-244-2224.
***
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved,
as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V.
Debs (1855-1926)
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and
thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
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