The Stakeholder Two-Step by Geoffrey Lawrence, May 13, 2010
Was it a serious government meeting intended to shape the future of Nevada, or a second-grade classroom? To the casual observer, the meetings more closely resembled the latter. Members of the Interim Finance Committee had hired Moody’s Analytics to act as facilitators to help the hand-picked gaggle of special interests on the stakeholder group develop their “vision” — and to perform an associated tax study. Read more.
The Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group (Click for List of Members)
The Group which is made up primarily of public employees, public employee unions, gaming and mining interests and others who receive state money in some way have issued their preliminary (draft) report. You guessed it. They believe we are not taxed enough. Further, they have developed a metric to see if you are exercising enough! Get the Preliminary Report from the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group.
PERS is dramatically understating its liabilities, by Geoffrey Lawrence, April 6, 2010
Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute recently determined that a market valuation of Nevada PERS assets reveals a total unfunded liability of $33.5 billion. At current levels, that would amount to roughly 10 years’ worth of state General Fund spending! According to Biggs’ analysis, the probability that PERS’ assets will be sufficient to cover accrued pension liabilities is only 6 percent for police and firefighters and 10 percent for groups of employees…(read more)
Tea Party Impostor
Anyone truly associated with the grassroots movement realizes that we do not want to be a party but rather to influence the parties. The formation by outsiders of the grassroots movement of an official Tea Party in Nevada will hurt our efforts. Accordingly, all of the grassroots organizers got together and signed the statement below to clarify that the Tea Party of Nevada is an imposter.
“We, the grassroots/tea party leaders of Nevada, speaking for the conservative activists in our communities, are united in issuing the following statement.
- We are united in denouncing the TPN (Tea Party of Nevada).
- The TPN is not a conservative party who speaks for grassroots and tea party activists in Nevada.
- The TPN is not now, has never been, and will never be affiliated with grassroots efforts in Nevada.
- The term “Tea Party Candidate” will no longer be used to indicate grassroots support for a candidate or candidates.
- The TPN will not be invited to or allowed to represent themselves at conservative grassroots events and functions across Nevada.
- We are united in our desire for fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability from legislators and in legislation from Carson City, NV and Washington, D.C.
- We are united in opposition of progressive leanings towards unfunded mandates as a solution to appeasing special interest and delivering ‘social justice’.
- We are united in the belief that our government should be inspiring pride and accountability, and personal strength and opportunity, not a path for us to follow to have our needs met as the government sees fit.
We, the tea party activists and grassroots organizers in Nevada, are united.”
Signed by all of the Nevada Grassroots and Tea Party Organizations.
The 2009 Nevada Legislative Session – Review and Report Card, but Geoffrey Lawrence, September 24, 2009
State lawmakers approached the 2009 Legislative Session knowing that they would face difficult decisions. Deciding tax revenues over th eprevious budget cycle had already forced legislators to gather in Carson City on two occasions for special sessions to deal with gaps between tax revenues and planned state spending. Revenue projections released in December 2008 indicated that the state’s fiscal position would continue to deteriorate.
How did each of the state legislators vote on these critical issues? Which ones are running for re-election? Here is your opportunity to see if they support big government spending and new taxes and fees…..(read more)
The magical language of special session, but Geoffrey Lawrence, February 25, 2010
In fact, in lieu of the current 31 percent increase in real, per-capita spending levels over those of just six years ago, Gibbons is proposing levels that are a “mere” 23 percent higher. Cuts, indeed! Yet, even the governor’s plan to continue growing government does not grow it quickly enough for lawmakers – many of whom viewed the 31-percent increase itself, during the 2009 regular session, as unsatisfactory, Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford says that Silver State businesses “must be part of the solution” by contributing more in tax dollars in order to maintain the high rate of growth in government spending over the past several years. Otherwise, he fears the state will be “looking at thousands of layoffs.”
How do we get the word out that the budget has increased 23% and NOT cut! (read more)
The voluntary special session ‘Shortfall’ is the result of bigger spending scheme, Geoffrey Lawrence, December 10, 2009
State lawmakers must really love Carson City. After all, the choices they made in February through May of this year virtually guaranteed that they would be returning before the next regular legislative session. It was clear at the outset of the 2009 regular session that tax revenues were in decline and would continueto decline over the foreseeable future due to the economic recession. Yet, lawmakers made the decision to increase state spending over the 2009-11 biennium despite this decline in revenues.
Who were these legislators who should have reasonably known that they were voting for spending that could not be paid for with existing revenues? (read more)
Rhetoric versus reality on education spending, they’re telling you more is less, by Patrick R. Gibbons, March 2, 2010
Before the special session even began, Nevadans were swamped with dooms day warnings about “devastating cuts” to education. The rhetoric, however, never squared with reality. When asked, the Legislative Counsel Bureau acknowledged that the operating budget lawmakers had approved for school districts’ 2009-11 biennium was actually 2.9 percent larger than that for the previous biennium. And Budet Director Andrew Clinger told lawmakers that the governor’s proposed reductions to education would amount to just 2.4 percent of K-12 spending – meaning that K-12 education could well end up actually spending more this biennium than the last!
Did you say “education has actually increased? Really……Why are your schools still failing? Will more wasted money help? (read more)
All Bills That Became Law – 26th (2010) Special Session
What happened in the special session? Who voted against the new taxes and fees? (read more)
All Bills That Became Law in the – 75th (2009) Session
Could the Legislature really have voted for $1 billion in new taxes and fees in 2009? (read more)
