Back in January, Gov. Jim Gibbons introduced a balanced budget of around $6.2 billion, with a $292 million room tax hike included. And Democrats, not to mention several “Specter” Republicans, have been squealing like stuck pigs (with and without the flu) ever since.
To hear these folks tell it, there’s no way on God’s green earth to come up with a balanced budget that will fund government’s essential service without massive new tax revenue. The problem is, their definition of “essential” includes every last dime currently being spent, exactly as it’s currently being spent, along with a 20 percent increase.
And frankly, the Governor’s proposed budget, including the multi-million dollar room tax hike, is also too high – especially considering the dire shape of our economy.
What government needs to do is radically shrink in size…..exactly what Government Motors is doing by shedding itself of Pontiac, the Hummer and Saab. Desperate times call for desperate measures. That means dramatically cutting back on operations, not dramatically increasing prices. Or as Steve Wynn so artfully put it on Jon Ralston’s television show recently, “Anybody who raises taxes now is psychotic.”
But unlike in 2003, when Nevada last faced a huge tax hike threat, fiscal conservatives haven’t just said “no new taxes” and “cut, cut, cut” without being specific. Geoff Lawrence and the Nevada Policy Research Institute released today an alternative budget which comes in at just $5.1 billion – more than a billion dollars LESS than Gov. Gibbons’ proposed budget WITHOUT any tax hikes (including the room tax) and WITHOUT taking any federal stimulus money.
So when the Left or some “Specter Republican” challenges you by saying, “Oh, yeah? Well if you don’t want higher taxes, what would you cut?” – you can send them HERE
