Laura wrote on May 09, 2009 07:52 AM: I'm a member of AFSCME and I do not have a "generous" salary or benefits. If some of the members of RJ's editorial board had to live off my yearly salary (before cuts) you would kill yourself.

Quit looking down your noses at state employees and citizens of Clark County in general. Newspapers around the country are dying due to lack of readership, do you want to be next?

tom Young wrote on May 08, 2009 08:22 PM: I guess the writer of this must work for jim gibbons .I do believe you never worked for the state.And in times likes this bash state employes and there unions All we want is a fair wage safe working conditions and good health care. I have been in this system for 33 years and have to fight for everthing we get.The reason I have been with the state for so long is not for the money but the benfits .I will never collect social security because we don"t pay into it. thats because we make so much money. If your going to attack state workers and there unions at least get your facts right. When you find all this money that we make send me some I bet I can use it. by the way tell truth and I wont have to respond to this stuff.oh thats right you have to sell newspapers I guess the true facts don"tmatter.

Rob L. wrote on May 08, 2009 06:31 AM: John, That was just 3 sections of the budget, we could go on for days and rack up 100s of millions more!

"But we could - and should - cut them all and still not have enough to do what we need to do."

I beg to differ and until the state stops wasting money on things government has no busines being involved in, such as Train Museums, cries of poverty are nothing but lies. When something critical on my budget is threatened, I cut something else. If a teacher's job is threatened you think the Nevada Arts Council would be the first to go to save every last teacher. Of course not. Instead its far easier to tax businesses and smokers then to make the tough decisions. Not a dime more until every last unneccessary expeniture is cut. No Exceptions!!!

RJ state employee bashing continues wrote on May 07, 2009 08:36 PM: As we know, the RJ editorial board has a lack of appreciation for the work state employees are doing every day for our community, providing for the needs of the ciizens. They do more work with less staff than any other state (before the current hiring freeze). I want to say thanks to state employees & to Dennis Mallory for standing up for them, as their voices are seldom heard.

Shane wrote on May 07, 2009 05:02 PM: Thank you Patrick for the specificness of your facts;

Here is what the Governor is proposing;

FY 2009-2011
$8,582.7
$8,759.4
Or, $17,342.1

Now that Patrick has corrected the data, Nevada would have to spend $18,220,000,000 a year to match Wyoming's per capita spending, which is 53% less than we spend now.

Randy;
Thanks for the heads up that you have found stimulous money in the amount of $200,000,000 million than even the president reports is coming to Nevada! Where did you find that info? Where did you find the extra money?

Too, you say we have $5.5 billion, where did you find that info?

You say that will bring us to $9.2 billion which is 35% more than we spend now. Patrick states that we spend $9 billion a year now, so having "only" $6.2 billion leaves us $2.8 billions short just for the next year, we'll need another $9 billion for the next year.

You assert that $9.2 billion is 35% more than we spend now. Where did you get that number? 9.2x.35=3,220,000,000. Are we spending $5,980,000,000 a year now? Why would the Governor put in his fiscal report, and why would Patrick of NPRI state, that we are spending $9 billion a year when you have data that shows we are spending only 2/3 of what the Governor and NPRI is telling everyone?

my union aquires more than your union doe$ wrote on May 07, 2009 04:45 PM:
yeah!

Randy wrote on May 07, 2009 04:23 PM: John

Getting another $3 billion when we already have $6.2 ($5.5 plus the federal stimulus) would bring us to $9.2 billion.

That would be a 35 percent increase over the current budget. What are you smoking?

John F wrote on May 07, 2009 04:18 PM: Good job, Rob. You've managed to save about $8.5 million of a three billion dollar shortage. Where do you propose we cut the other $2,991,500,000?

I don't disagree with you that we're spending money on unnecessary things. But we could - and should - cut them all and still not have enough to do what we need to do.

Patrick wrote on May 07, 2009 04:04 PM: one more thing, that brings our biennial total budget to $17.5 billion (and that is just the guvs budget).

Patrick wrote on May 07, 2009 04:00 PM: We're cheaper,

Nevada's actual budget is almost $9 billion a year.

The state only wants to count about $3 billion of that because that is money they can play with any way they want, but we spend close to $9 billion in total.

That excludes local governments btw.

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