Excerpted from a Las Vegas Review Journal article:
According to data provided by the National Conference of State Legislatures, no state budget is growing faster than Nevada's. Between 1994 and 2005, state spending increased by 147.5 percent, easily outdistancing Delaware at 121.9 percent and California at 100.2 percent. If Nevada's 1994 budget is compared with the estimated $3 billion the government will shell out in 2007, state spending will have tripled in just 13 years.
Nevada's spot atop these rankings isn't terribly surprising given the state's nation-leading population gains, but the budget's growth rate dwarfs even the explosive expansion of the Las Vegas Valley. Population growth and inflation justify a 93 percent increase in state spending between 1994 and 2005. Had legislators demonstrated such restraint, Nevada would have fallen to fourth place on this list.
Posted by Webmaster on February 13, 2010 under Spending
People have been moving away from Nevada because it no longer is an easy place to get a job.
As Nevada’s politicians gear up for a special session to reduce its plans for government spending down to the level of its tax revenue, the Las Vegas Sun this morning profiled politicians who want to raise taxes. Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce told the reporter:
We have the smallest government in the country and it’s not even close.
This is a whopper of a lie. Nevada has an average sized state-and-local government, although because it shifts a large portion of its government funding onto visitors, Nevada residents pay less than other states’ residents. But Nevada’s government spending, in study after study, is average.
Assemblywoman Pierce has been lying about stingy government in Nevada since she was elected. That’s not news. The more striking aspect of this story is the question it poses about the media’s responsibility to give Assemblywoman Pierce a platform to lie without any fact-checking.
Should the Las Vegas Sun’s reporter David McGrath Schwartz have corrected Pierce’s prevarication?
Posted by Webmaster on January 8, 2010 under Local Government, Salaries, State Government
Driven by the highest local government (cities, counties) pay in the United States and moderated by less lucrative state-level worker pay, Nevada overall ranks sixth-highest government worker pay in a new study by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.
Posted by Webmaster on December 22, 2009 under News, Spending, Tax Structure
PLAN has ranked Nevada’s elected officials. The average grade is a D. Here’s the full story.
Posted by Webmaster on July 24, 2009 under Economy, Spending
The National Conference of State Legislatures has issued a reminder to Nevada’s Legislature: if you plan to increase spending during a time when revenue is falling, especially when all other states are trimming spending in line with revenue, you will end up with the largest budget gap amongst American States.
No doubt the Confused Wing of Nevada’s political and press corps will again complain that we need to raise taxes in Nevada, rather than do what all the other states are doing (which is reducing spending in line with revenue).
Posted by Webmaster on April 16, 2009 under State Government
An Associated Press Wire Story that ran in today’s Review Journal and Reno Gazette Journal (read it here) is an example of embarrassingly bad journalism. It states, over and over again, that Nevada has the worst budget deficit in the United States, quoting:
- Proud socialists PLAN in Reno
- even prouder socialists Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington
- Two democrat Nevada Assemblymen
as saying the Nevada has the largest budget deficit of any US state.
Paragraph three does, correctly, yet briefly, note that the gap is calculated by comparing revenue forecasts with what government thinks it needs.
In Nevada’s case, the legislature is planning to increase spending to a level 20% higher than our current revenue.
Meanwhile, our revenue is going to be around 10% less than current levels. 20% more plus 10% less equals a 30% budget gap, America’s largest.
Nevada has the largest budget gap because Nevada has the most unrestrained, irresponsible legislature of any state.
Here’s a reality-based look at Nevada’s actual revenue shortfall – sixteen states have it worse than us.
Posted by Webmaster on April 9, 2009 under State Government
Worst in the nation, Jon Ralston flashed his audience today, citing the Wall Street Journal:
If you don’t believe what I and others have been saying about Nevada having the largest proportional budget hole, The Wall Street Journal says it’s true – just click on the map
The Journal’s article and chart actually rank Nevada’s tax shortfall as relatively mild, compared to many other states… at 6.5-percent, 16 states have a worse revenue shortfall than we do.
The data does rank Nevada’s legislature as one of the most irresponsible in America. When Nevada’s revenue started tanking, our legislature increased spending by draining all our savings and giving employees an average 6% raise last July. And our legislature plans on increasing spending again in three months – alot.
As a result, Nevada leads the nation in what the Wall Street Journal calls “Projected 2010 Gap as Percentage of FY2009 General Fund” and what Ralston more cleverly calls the “largest proportional budget hole”.
If our Legislature had acted responsibly, and trimmed spending when revenue flattened out instead of increasing spending, we would have an average problem on our hands. This is especially clear in retrospect, but should give the Legislature pause before raising taxes.
Remember, a “budget” is merely a plan to spend… or in Nevada’s recent years, a plan to overspend.
