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Sep. 30, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

BUCKLEY FORUMS: Forum attendees offer budget salves

Lottery, new taxes among proposals

By ALAN CHOATE
REVIEW-JOURNAL
ON THE WEB
The next forum is Monday in the Joe Crowley Student Union at the University of Nevada, Reno: www.nv2020.com

Instead of slashing and cutting its way out of a deepening budget crisis, Nevada should implement a state lottery or introduce new taxes so that the state doesn't rank so poorly in education, crime and health measurements, according to people who met with Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley on Monday.

The Las Vegas Democrat was hosting the first of several open forums on revamping how Nevada collects and spends its revenue, with a goal of softening the "boom-bust" cycles of the state's economy.

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    • "When times are good, the Legislature spends a little bit of money on a lot of things, and we're good at nothing," Buckley said. "Then, in the bad times, we tear it all down.

    "We must overhaul the way we run state government."

    More than 100 people gathered at Spring Valley High School in southwest Las Vegas to listen to her ideas and offer some of their own.

    One of the most popular suggestions was enacting a state lottery, particularly if the revenue was directed at a specific function, such as education. Both a gross receipts tax on businesses and a state income tax came up several times.

    Valley resident Denise Kelly brought the house down, though, with a call for excise taxes on gold, silver, platinum and uranium mining.

    "That's something you can get done," she said to Buckley, offering a colorful suggestion for what to do "if that mining bunch doesn't like it."

    Buckley has already outlined her ideas, which include collecting past-due taxes, curtailing tax abatements and exemptions, beefing up the state's rainy day fund, maximizing federal matching funds and partnering with the Bureau of Land Management to spur solar and wind power development on public lands.

    Most of her presentation, though, chronicled Nevada's many woes: 47th in the nation for per-pupil spending and student-teacher ratios, 49th in higher education spending, 50th in child immunizations and near the bottom for people with health insurance. The boom-bust cycle compounds those problems, she argued.

    So far, more than $400 million in state funds has been cut from K-12 and higher education, prisons, parole and probation, and health and human services.

    That means, for instance, that prison education programs are cut, which in turn makes unskilled inmates likely to get in trouble again when released. The state also needs teachers and nurses, but universities can't offer enough classes to train them.

    And not only does the $113 million cut from health services hurt disabled people and seniors, it also reduces by $45 million the amount of matching money collected from the federal government.

    "It's a double whammy," Buckley said.

    Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.

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    CAS127 wrote on September 30, 2008 04:08 PM: Full year = 2000 hours worked.

    Teachers union contract requires teachers to work about 65% of that - the standard for the rest of us taxpaying peons who don't have a hireling like Buckley.


    CAS127 wrote on September 30, 2008 04:05 PM: Colorful suggestion for teacher union flack Buckley - make teachers work a full year (2000) for their current full year's pay.


    K2 wrote on September 30, 2008 03:09 PM: I forgot to add that our legislators are somewhat out of touch with this group of people never having worked in hotels (many of them,) and just not realizing the massive payrolls these places need to cover. They will NEVER
    help education. It cuts into their work force. There was something in the paper about Harrah's supporting immigration (did not read it) but I believe it. Got to go...


    K2 wrote on September 30, 2008 03:03 PM: I say good luck to Ms. Buckley. I also know the hotels need thousands of maids and porters and dishwashers and will not cooperate. Never have, never will. No one gets an education to do those jobs. Las Vegas is unique in that area. Combine that with an immigrant base more than happy to do those jobs and it makes things that much harder.


    Rodman wrote on September 30, 2008 03:01 PM: To lightbulb moment; you surly can't be the brightest bulb in the socket. This broad knows nothing about nothing as exhibited by her past performance and many failures in the state legislature. This latest venture is nothing more than early campaigning for a position(governor) that she won't win. I sure hope taxpayer money isn't funding these townhall meetings.


    lightbulb moment wrote on September 30, 2008 10:57 AM: Buckley knows what she's talking about


    Kathy A Cook wrote on September 30, 2008 05:44 AM: Living in a small rural town in Nevada and working in their schoool district, what is happening in our school district and community is atrocious. We have an honor camp nearby that is scheduled to be closed down that will affect our numbers in the school district and the people that will have to move to another county is going to cause a major hit to our economy. Something needs to be done with our Nevada state government instead of cut, cut, cut. It's a sad situation to sit last on all of the issues that have such a deep impact on our livelyhoods. I am so glad to see someone in our government finally stepping up and trying to do something to help us. I wish more of our "elected" officials would get enough nerve to try and help us instead of sitting back and letting our Governor destroy our state. Let's have a wakeup call here and get some more of our representives that we voted into office to help revive our economy and get our education benefits back on track. It is embarrassing to see we have children in schools and know we are rated among the lowest of the nation in what we spend to educate the children who will one day run this great nation.Is their no pride left in Nevada?