The City of Las Vegas and Clark County are now entertaining the idea of combining some of their fire services rather than duplicating the efforts in order to save money. When Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak was asked why this hadn’t been done before by Face-to-Face host Jon Ralston, the Commish responded that there hasn’t been such a dire economic need to consider such a measure before.
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Commissioner Sisolak! This is EXACTLY why it is so important to get candidates to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. Because as long as tax hikes and “revenue enhancements” are on the table, politicians will raise and spend the money. ONLY by drying up the money the government has to spend will government EVER shrink itself or look for serious alternatives to the status quo.
It’s time for government to do less with less. And the Taxpayer Protection Pledge is the only thing that will help force politicians to do in good times what they are now being forced to do by The Great Recession.
Despite being molten lava-rock solid in holding the line on taxes, Gov. Jim Gibbons failed to get the backing of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce yesterday. The biz group threw its backing instead to Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval. And I predict this is a preview of what GOP primary voters will do on June 8. Too little, too late and too erratic for the incumbent governor.
Meanwhile, “The Committee to Protect Nevada Jobs, aka the Committee to Elect Rory Reid, has launched another effort to distort and lie about Brian’s record,” according to the most recent email from the Sanoval campaign. “Just today, the Committee to Elect Rory Reid attacked us on taxes. Brian Sandoval is the only candidate for Governor — Republican or Democrat — to offer a plan to balance the state’s budget this year, cutting $500 million from state spending, without raising taxes.”
Two quick points: (1) Sandoval is also the only Republican candidate for governor who has refused to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge because he says he doesn’t want his “hands tied” when it comes to raising taxes, and (2) most estimates are that Nevada will face a $2.5 billion budget deficit next year. Where’s the other $2 billion gonna come from if Gov. Sandoval isn’t going to raise taxes?
Unless you’re a public school teacher, the math just doesn’t add up here.
“The Millennium Scholarship program that offers $10,000 state college scholarships to bright Nevada high school graduates will fall $1.3 million short of its need next year and possibly more in subsequent years, a state treasurer’s official confirmed Tuesday,” reports the LVRJ.
Time for means testing and/or other limitations, because this program, funded by the tobacco settlement, was sold to Nevadans as NEVER going to need tax dollars.
And finally, Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws (NSML) reported this morning that University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) basketball player Matt Shaw “has been suspended for one year – ending his career with the team – because of one positive test for marijuana. Shaw, fourth on the team in scoring last year, tested positive during a random drug test administered during the recent NCAA tournament.”
This….is….insane.
As Dave Schwartz of NSML notes, Shaw “made a rational decision to use a substance less harmful than alcohol. Now, for this simple act, his career with the Runnin’ Rebels is over. We hope all Nevadans will stop to think about this for just one moment – and think specifically about the fact that players who drink alcohol to excess face no punishment, at least until they assault someone. It simply makes no sense.”
No….sense….at….all.
