"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear."
---Edmund Burke
On Tuesday evening two concurrent meetings took place in Nevada, one in Las Vegas and one in Reno, that emphasized just how sad the state of political affairs is in the state.
In the Washoe County Commission chambers, Kitty Jung couldn’t even get a second for her motion for a small tax increase to repair aging schools that had survived in a grotesquely mutated form from the 2013 Legislature. Her colleagues meandered and pandered, suggesting a vote of the people rather than performing their duties.
Five hundred miles away, at state Democratic Party headquarters, lawmakers were peppering teachers union representatives with questions about a small tax increase that could bring $1.6 billion into state coffers during the next biennium. Democrats had promised much and delivered nothing on the funding issue during the session and generally have been hiding from taking a position on a plan that circumvents them and goes directly to the people.
This is the state we are in.
I have said it before, and it is even more true this week: Nevada is bereft of leadership, from Carson City to the locals, with politicians preferring empty sloganeering and embracing direct democracy instead of helping a state that still resides at or near the bottom of most important quality of life indicators.
This is not a partisan problem. Republicans who bleat “no new taxes” to curry favor are as culpable as Democrats who wail about more money but refuse to enact any plan. And neither side, after inflaming their bases, wants to engage in a serious debate about the how the state raises and spends money, preferring to wage a sound-bite war instead: “No new taxes” vs. “More money for kids.” Impressive.
Those two dozen Democrats in Las Vegas on Tuesday can be as angry as they like with the teachers for going to the ballot. But they brought this upon themselves with their Groundhog Day behavior of paying lip service to calls for increased education funding and then failing to deliver during the session. And those four Republicans on the Washoe commission who refused to support the tax plan can be as angry as they like at a governor and lawmakers who passed the buck. But they had a choice Tuesday evening to try to educate the public instead of genuflecting to vocal minorities – and they chose the path of least resistance.
This is the state we are in.
Both the teachers’ margin tax and the Washoe schools tax are products of gubernatorial and legislative fear and paralysis, encouraged in a toxic no-tax climate that is endemic to Nevada and ensures the state remains in the lower echelons of education, social services and infrastructure. And it has been exacerbated by the last two Republicans governors, who shamelessly ran on no-new-taxes platforms that were made of plywood and easily cracked.
Brian Sandoval may have rescued the state Republican Party from Jim Gibbons. But Sandoval ran to the right of Gibbons in 2010, with an even more absolute no-tax pledge that he broke faster than any Obamacare promises have been snapped.
Sunsets? What sunsets?
Sandoval and Gibbons are guilty of the same transgression, which is leading voters to believe that not raising taxes under any circumstances will entitle them to a quality of life unsullied by overcrowded schools with teachers struggling with English Language Learners, a frayed social service net that allows Greyhound buses with mental patients to slip through and clogged roads, espcially in the South, that put a strain on the economy. “No new taxes” is not a policy but a placebo, and no cure for what ails Nevada.
This is the state we are in.
The twin tax stories epitomize how government does not work in Nevada, and how no one seems willing to step up and change it. The Republicans, riven by the Wheelerites ("conservative" means letting voters tell you what to do) vs. the moderates (who don't believe "compromise" is an expletive) war, are united in wanting to hold any potential tax increase hostage to pet issues such as prevailing wage and collective bargaining reform. The Democrats, who talk a lot about funding education, are afraid their implicit stance to raise taxes will cause them to be un-elected. So they are paralyzed, caught between a minority on the left that longs to do something and leaders and strategists who want to preserve their Carson City majorities by doing....nothing.
With Republicans unwilling to give on taxes and Democrats unwilling to consider any of the GOP ideas, stasis prevails.
The Washoe schools tax had a tortured legislative history because the governor wouldn’t sign it and lawmakers wanted political cover. So they punted to the locals, who wanted no part of it. Bravo.
The margin tax is the product of years of frustration by the teachers union with their own supporters’ failed promises. And when Democrats had a chance to deal with it during the 2013 session, they were cravenly silent, allowing it to go to the ballot without even taking a vote or proposing an alternative. Kudos.
This is the state we are in.
And will be until someone in elective office or a candidate says no more. No more invoking The Wheeler Doctrine: I’ll do whatever the voters want instead of trying to educate them on what the facts are. No more making or signing inane no-tax pledges and instead informing voters that funding government is not that simple. No more demonizing the other side because neither party can get close to the moral high ground on this.
Until that happens, the skies will not be sunny because someone says they are, Nevada’s future will not be bright despite cherry-picked statistics and the economy will not be glimmering even if there are a lot of ribbon-cuttings. Expecting anything to change with the same old promises, the same old campaigns, the same old people will produce the same results.
UPDATED, 11/15/13 WITH VIDEO VERSION:
"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear."
---Edmund Burke
In the Washoe County Commission chambers, Kitty Jung couldn’t even get a second for her motion for a small tax increase to repair aging schools that had survived in a grotesquely mutated form from the 2013 Legislature. Her colleagues meandered and pandered, suggesting a vote of the people rather than performing their duties.
Five hundred miles away, at state Democratic Party headquarters, lawmakers were peppering teachers union representatives with questions about a small tax increase that could bring $1.6 billion into state coffers during the next biennium. Democrats had promised much and delivered nothing on the funding issue during the session and generally have been hiding from taking a position on a plan that circumvents them and goes directly to the people.
This is the state we are in.
I have said it before, and it is even more true this week: Nevada is bereft of leadership, from Carson City to the locals, with politicians preferring empty sloganeering and embracing direct democracy instead of helping a state that still resides at or near the bottom of most important quality of life indicators.
This is not a partisan problem. Republicans who bleat “no new taxes” to curry favor are as culpable as Democrats who wail about more money but refuse to enact any plan. And neither side, after inflaming their bases, wants to engage in a serious debate about the how the state raises and spends money, preferring to wage a sound-bite war instead: “No new taxes” vs. “More money for kids.” Impressive.
Those two dozen Democrats in Las Vegas on Tuesday can be as angry as they like with the teachers for going to the ballot. But they brought this upon themselves with their Groundhog Day behavior of paying lip service to calls for increased education funding and then failing to deliver during the session. And those four Republicans on the Washoe commission who refused to support the tax plan can be as angry as they like at a governor and lawmakers who passed the buck. But they had a choice Tuesday evening to try to educate the public instead of genuflecting to vocal minorities – and they chose the path of least resistance.
This is the state we are in.
Both the teachers’ margin tax and the Washoe schools tax are products of gubernatorial and legislative fear and paralysis, encouraged in a toxic no-tax climate that is endemic to Nevada and ensures the state remains in the lower echelons of education, social services and infrastructure. And it has been exacerbated by the last two Republicans governors, who shamelessly ran on no-new-taxes platforms that were made of plywood and easily cracked.
Brian Sandoval may have rescued the state Republican Party from Jim Gibbons. But Sandoval ran to the right of Gibbons in 2010, with an even more absolute no-tax pledge that he broke faster than any Obamacare promises have been snapped.
Sunsets? What sunsets?
Sandoval and Gibbons are guilty of the same transgression, which is leading voters to believe that not raising taxes under any circumstances will entitle them to a quality of life unsullied by overcrowded schools with teachers struggling with English Language Learners, a frayed social service net that allows Greyhound buses with mental patients to slip through and clogged roads, espcially in the South, that put a strain on the economy. “No new taxes” is not a policy but a placebo, and no cure for what ails Nevada.
This is the state we are in.
The twin tax stories epitomize how government does not work in Nevada, and how no one seems willing to step up and change it. The Republicans, riven by the Wheelerites ("conservative" means letting voters tell you what to do) vs. the moderates (who don't believe "compromise" is an expletive) war, are united in wanting to hold any potential tax increase hostage to pet issues such as prevailing wage and collective bargaining reform. The Democrats, who talk a lot about funding education, are afraid their implicit stance to raise taxes will cause them to be un-elected. So they are paralyzed, caught between a minority on the left that longs to do something and leaders and strategists who want to preserve their Carson City majorities by doing....nothing.
With Republicans unwilling to give on taxes and Democrats unwilling to consider any of the GOP ideas, stasis prevails.
The Washoe schools tax had a tortured legislative history because the governor wouldn’t sign it and lawmakers wanted political cover. So they punted to the locals, who wanted no part of it. Bravo.
The margin tax is the product of years of frustration by the teachers union with their own supporters’ failed promises. And when Democrats had a chance to deal with it during the 2013 session, they were cravenly silent, allowing it to go to the ballot without even taking a vote or proposing an alternative. Kudos.
This is the state we are in.
And will be until someone in elective office or a candidate says no more. No more invoking The Wheeler Doctrine: I’ll do whatever the voters want instead of trying to educate them on what the facts are. No more making or signing inane no-tax pledges and instead informing voters that funding government is not that simple. No more demonizing the other side because neither party can get close to the moral high ground on this.
Until that happens, the skies will not be sunny because someone says they are, Nevada’s future will not be bright despite cherry-picked statistics and the economy will not be glimmering even if there are a lot of ribbon-cuttings. Expecting anything to change with the same old promises, the same old campaigns, the same old people will produce the same results.
This is the state we are in.
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