Hyperbole U trotted out University Regent Mike Wixom on Sunday with a Las Vegas Sun op/ed using the term “new paradigm” in the headline – which immediately suggested to me the opinion was going to be, well, six parts crappola mixed with a healthy dose of flapdoodle. And Regent Wixom did not disappoint.
Wixom complains about people he supposedly has talked to “who have, just months ago, given me a lecture about not raising taxes” but now “desperately plead that we preserve a segment of higher education that they particularly value.” According to Wixom, “cutting is acceptable to them, as long as it is someone or something else.”
In concluding his intellectual-lite paradigm piece, Wixom declares that raising taxes to avoid higher ed spending cuts is absolutely necessary as long as “someone else” pays for it. “At a minimum, the taxes that are subject to sunset must be retained,” he declares.
That’s right, sales taxes, business taxes, payroll taxes and vehicle registration taxes all must be raised on everybody else in order to preserve the lowest college tuition fees in the region, as well as, “at a minimum,” duplicate teaching and nursing schools at both UNLV and the Nevada State College which are located a mere 17 miles apart from each other.
Meet the new paradigm; same as the old paradigm.