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Tax increases are not a part of state improvement plan
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU
CARSON CITY -- The 20-member Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group approved a 92-page plan Friday to improve life in Nevada over the next 20 years, but it does not endorse increasing taxes to get there.
Members of the legislatively appointed group made few changes from the draft plan prepared last week by Moody's Analytics, a national economic research company.
The group added a statement that Nevada state government needs to change its fiscal structure and advised legislators not ignore the Vision Stakeholder plan like they have other studies in the past 20 years.
Don Snyder, a group member representing the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, said it will be hard to improve the quality of life in Nevada because of the lack of "economic vitality." The state's 14.3 percent unemployment rate is highest in the nation.
Other members emphasized that instead of raising taxes, the state government should operate more efficiently and legislators should cut budgets.
During public comment at the five-hour meeting, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada legislative lobbyist Jan Gilbert lamented that many of the group's goals "won't see the light of day because of the lack of revenue."
Gilbert said Medicaid, the children's health program and other programs for the poor should be expanded but probably won't because of the lack of money.
Legislators face a potential $3 billion budget shortfall when they go into session in February. They appointed the Vision Stakeholder Group and hired Moody's Analytics to create a blueprint for changes they might make.
Moody's, however, failed to meet deadlines for examining the state's tax structure and recommending tax changes, so the company will receive only $99,000 of its $253,000 contract to complete the tax study and advise the Stakeholders Group.
It had been widely speculated that Moody's and the Stakeholders Group would propose a business profits tax and expand sales taxes to include untaxed services.
Business lobbyist Cheryl Blomstrom urged the group not to recommend higher taxes. Blomstrom said businesses already face higher unemployment taxes since the state has to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits. Employees also face higher taxes to replenish the state's depleted unemployment trust fund.
"Please do us no harm," Blomstrom said. "Nevada businesses now are struggling. Behind every business are families."
Many of the findings in the report, called "Envisioning Nevada's Future: Goals & Strategies for Advancing Our Quality of Life," were hardly surprising.
The group calls for Nevada to make a strong effort to diversify its economy, a goal that goes back to at least the 1980s. Moody's said Nevada has the most volatile economy in the nation because of its concentration on a few industries.
Geoff Lawrence, an analyst with the Nevada Policy Research Institute in Las Vegas, likes the recommendations for expanding charter and empowerment schools, which he believes would not cost much more money. But he quickly added most recommendations are too expensive.
"This is a spending wish list that assumes they have revenue," he said. "The revenue is not there to back it up. The proposals are going to be dead on arrival."
But the report is optimistic about Nevada's future.
"As the current national economic recovery transitions into self-sustaining expansion, Nevada is expected to resume its above-average pace of growth, due largely to renewed in-migration and consumer spending of new households."
The state's climate, recreational opportunities, low tax base and natural beauty will attract younger people and retirees.
Over the next 20 years, Moody's expects employment in the leisure and hospitality industry to grow at a 3 percent annual rate, while construction jobs will grow slightly less than 4 percent a year.
Robert E. Lang, the Vision Stakeholders non-voting chairman and a professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, also was upbeat about the report and Nevada's future.
"I see this as the beginning, but it is something you never really finish." Lang said. "This can set the priorities for our future."
Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900.
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Dear Michael and others who chose to ignore the facts:
State employees constitute about 1% of all Nevadans. Engineers who work for the state (not the city or county) have annual salaries about 30% less than engineers who work comparable jobs in the private sector. City and county engineers have salaries comparable to the private sector.
Please realize that the small salaries paid to state-employed engineers do not disappear into a black hole; these monies are recirculated throughout Nevada's businesses. The state job may be "more secure" than a private industry job, but would you have taken a 30% pay cut during the "boom times" for merely a slightly more secure job?
The problems we are facing today began in the Clinton administration when, with the "help" of a Republican Congress in 1999, the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed. As government grows smaller and weaker, the power of large corporations grows larger. When you consider that, between 2002 and 2007, the incomes of the upper 0.1% of Americans TRIPLED, while the incomes of those earning less than $200,000/yr rose at an average of 1.3% per year...well
Why ANYONE who earns less than $200,000/year would vote Republican (and therefore, against their own best economic interest) has amazed me for years. The TEA party is a corporate-funded nightmare for middle-class Americans. Anyone so easily duped by Republican/TEA party deserves what they get; I don't!
Sam
PEOPLE; there is ONLY 1 fair and honest solution; bankruptcy,,, we are 3 times more bankrupt than Orange County (they filed) we have the same population.
BECAUSE the unions have got wh0re politicians to make the law so the politicians can say "there is nothing we can do about the union contracts" of course they wrote the laws.
Metro cops=$175K
N.Y. cops==55K but they only need 41K for "same standard of living" SO, hire them and give them a big raise by paying them 55K
EXACT same story for fire dept.
YOU MUST admit we are broke, declare bankruptcy ; fire all so there is no discrimination; IMMEDIATLY re-hire any who wish to work for the "new deal" they get paid what their bosses the taxpayers earn in private sector and NOT a penny more
More than 1,000 state and local government employees in Nevada are compensated over $200,000 per year, and to more than 10,000 employees the taxpayers here pay over $100,000 per year.
Look it up at: transparentnevada.com/salaries/all/?page=1
All of this in the midst of the worst recession in history. Thank you unions and the politicians who are in their pockets. Let’s raise taxes during the next legislative session.
This is the study where Gibbons vetoed the bill from the legislature as a waste of money, then the IFC approved it anyway. It made Horsford feel good at the time.
"The group added a statement that Nevada state government needs to change its fiscal structure and advised legislators not ignore the Vision Stakeholder plan like they have other studies in the past 20 years."
We paid $99K for that? Of course they are going to ignore it! By all indications, the upcoming Legislature will be just like the past - they debate Nanny state bills and assorted BS for 105 days. The real issues get the last 15 and then a special session. There will be no real solutions, just band-aids.