Cutting Nevada’s Spending
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
The Nevada budget is currently considered to have about a $900 million gap with more expenses than expected revenue. Because the state’s constitution does not allow for deficit spending (spending more than is available) corrections are required and will be dealt with in some fashion when the Nevada Legislature is called in for a special session.
Watching the Legislative Interim Finance Committee going through their meeting (Feb. 3, 2010) it’s hard to not see the majority party’s advocates positioning to shift the thinking to not want spending cuts as an alternative (especially in the area of reductions in state government employment). The dire consequences of layoffs of government employees and attempts to posture in order to draw attention to the “sacrifice” already made by public employees certainly didn’t suffer from any shortage of promotion.
There are on-going efforts to find ways of resolving the public policy differences between the Governor’s office and leaders of the Nevada Legislature. These considerations appear to be wide-ranging and comprehensive, leaving no stone unturned in the evaluation of what might pass as a consideration.
All agencies of the state have been and are going through significant assessment to determine their priority spending requirements. The Nevada Board of Regents are also engaged in their consideration for reductions of the Nevada Higher Education System’s budgets.
What comes forward from this analysis will need serious deliberation by not only legislators, but also citizens engaged in contact with their representatives, recognizing that there will be pain and distress in making the decisions which will be required. That isn’t to say however that going forward with responsible reductions is not an option.
Additional non-options include various account maneuverings that we are starting to hear about, as an example -- considering fee-payment accounts which have balances as potential targets for raiding. The Nevada Legislature has become quite brazen in their expansion of spending other people’s money to include diverting income from local governments or outright confiscation of resources that shouldn’t be theirs to acquire.
We understand that it is going to hurt and hurt very badly to make the necessary cuts in funds that have been allocated for expenditures which aren’t there for spending – seeking to avoid the responsibility is not going to be acceptable. We didn’t get into this situation because state spending wasn’t high enough and attempts to find a magic tax source which yields unlimited resources to provide for further expansion in spending are not going to bring us to a place where we need to be either…
As soon as the special session is commenced, legislators need to get on doing the things that need to done and bringing state spending to the level of the means available.
The Nevada budget is currently considered to have about a $900 million gap with more expenses than expected revenue. Because the state’s constitution does not allow for deficit spending (spending more than is available) corrections are required and will be dealt with in some fashion when the Nevada Legislature is called in for a special session.
Watching the Legislative Interim Finance Committee going through their meeting (Feb. 3, 2010) it’s hard to not see the majority party’s advocates positioning to shift the thinking to not want spending cuts as an alternative (especially in the area of reductions in state government employment). The dire consequences of layoffs of government employees and attempts to posture in order to draw attention to the “sacrifice” already made by public employees certainly didn’t suffer from any shortage of promotion.
There are on-going efforts to find ways of resolving the public policy differences between the Governor’s office and leaders of the Nevada Legislature. These considerations appear to be wide-ranging and comprehensive, leaving no stone unturned in the evaluation of what might pass as a consideration.
All agencies of the state have been and are going through significant assessment to determine their priority spending requirements. The Nevada Board of Regents are also engaged in their consideration for reductions of the Nevada Higher Education System’s budgets.
What comes forward from this analysis will need serious deliberation by not only legislators, but also citizens engaged in contact with their representatives, recognizing that there will be pain and distress in making the decisions which will be required. That isn’t to say however that going forward with responsible reductions is not an option.
Additional non-options include various account maneuverings that we are starting to hear about, as an example -- considering fee-payment accounts which have balances as potential targets for raiding. The Nevada Legislature has become quite brazen in their expansion of spending other people’s money to include diverting income from local governments or outright confiscation of resources that shouldn’t be theirs to acquire.
We understand that it is going to hurt and hurt very badly to make the necessary cuts in funds that have been allocated for expenditures which aren’t there for spending – seeking to avoid the responsibility is not going to be acceptable. We didn’t get into this situation because state spending wasn’t high enough and attempts to find a magic tax source which yields unlimited resources to provide for further expansion in spending are not going to bring us to a place where we need to be either…
As soon as the special session is commenced, legislators need to get on doing the things that need to done and bringing state spending to the level of the means available.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 2/3/2010 12:45 PM 
Categories: Nevada Budget
Tags: Interim Finance Committee Nevada Budget State Spending Taxes Nevada Policy Research Institute
Categories: Nevada Budget
Tags: Interim Finance Committee Nevada Budget State Spending Taxes Nevada Policy Research Institute
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