Rory Reid promised to disclose his plans to solve Nevada’s budget woes once a study panel revealed its recommendations. Now that the panel has suggested raising taxes, Reid has yet to offer his opinion. The clock is ticking.
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The Las Vegas Sun published news this morning that suggest a whopping 13.8% unemployment rate in the Las Vegas area. These numbers are staggering, and speak of a situation that continues to worsen, not get better.
The jobless rate in the Las Vegas area jumped to 13.8 percent in January, the 13th consecutive month of double-digit unemployment.
13 consecutive months? What about the stimulus package passed by Congress? That was a year ago and came loaded with promises of jobs and fixes. And what about Obama’s promise not to allow unemployment to pass over 8%? Granted, Nevada has had an issue with this before Obama took office, but the situation has clearly gotten much worse under his “leadership.”
And to think that many Democrats and some Republicans in Nevada actually want to raise taxes!
Many observers across the state are decrying Gov. Gibbon’s “bare-bones” Executive Budget. Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley has hinted at the need for tax hikes, saying, “We are going to have to start on a new plan. This just won’t work.” All the indications from the big-government crowd are that there is nothing left to cut from government spending in Nevada, and, as a result, the legislature must approve tax hikes.
Speaker Buckley made it a point at the outset of the legislative session to highlight the fact that the governor’s proposal to re-direct $79 million from Clark and Washoe County governments to the state general fund could adversely impact the operations of county government in those locales.
Apparently, one of the government operations she is trying to protect is government-subsidized golf. One use of tax dollars in Nevada channels public funds into taxpayer-subsidized golf courses. As privatization of these subsidized golf courses has not yet been proposed, one must assume that subsidizing golf is—in Speaker Buckley’s view—an essential government function and must remain even when the budget is “cut to the bone.” The notion is enough to make one second-guess what that expression means.
| Entity/Year | Planned Subsidy | Actual Subsidy |
| City of Henderson | ||
|
FY08 |
$1,768,857 |
$1,062,196 |
|
FY07 |
$2,128,465 |
$1,254,287 |
|
FY06 |
$1,620,675 |
$1,433,530 |
|
FY05 |
$296,994 |
$683,520 |
| City of Las Vegas |
|
|
|
FY07 |
$1,561,139 |
$960,086 |
|
FY06 |
$751,965 |
$856,920 |
| RSCVA |
|
|
|
FY08 |
$714,115 |
$741,338 |
|
FY07 |
$732,859 |
$480,110 |
|
FY06 |
$714,407 |
$547,879 |
|
FY05 |
$646,699 |
$646,156 |
| Washoe County |
|
|
|
FY08 |
$195,618 |
$95,771 |
|
FY07 |
$257,941 |
$23,757 |
|
FY06 |
$221,828 |
$183,828 |
|
FY05 |
$135,700 |
$328,757 |
Public entities such as the cities of Henderson and Las Vegas, Washoe County and the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority all own and operate subsidized golf courses in Nevada. Government golf courses operate as “enterprise funds,” which means that they are supposed to operate like a business. However, each of the publicly owned golf courses has regularly operated at significant losses, and these losses have been made up with tax dollars. What’s more, financial documents reveal that the government entities operating these golf courses have regularly planned to incur a loss—meaning the plan all along has been to force taxpayers to subsidize these golf courses.
Demographically, golfers are among the wealthiest Americans. The average household income of golfers exceeds $91,000 while 77 percent of golfers hold over $190,000 in investment portfolios. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in Nevada is $53,912. Speaker Buckley has decried the fact that “Abused children are not getting served. Kids with heart problems are not getting operations.” However, she has made no calls for curtailing the regressive subsidies that are given to wealthy golfers.
In 2007, subsidies for government golf courses in Nevada totaled $2.7 million, while in 2006 they totaled $3 million. While these annual amounts are small, they underscore the lack of fiscal discipline that continues to exist in Nevada. Few lawmakers have, as yet, voiced a willingness to implement true fiscal discipline despite the fact that NPRI has outlined a host of needed structural reforms in its recent “Recommendations for Cost-Cutting and Reform.”
Selling public courses to private owners could result in a significant infusion of tax dollars for state and local governments at a time when officials have complained of declining revenues. According to the most recent financial reports, public golf courses owned by the cities of Las Vegas and Henderson, Washoe County and the RSCVA are valued in excess of $40 million.
Words like “crisis,” “devastation” and “disaster” conjure up images of impending doom and have been used in reference to Nevada’s budget and revenue situation. But is Nevada actually facing a budget crisis?
In light of recent turbulence within the economy, many Nevadans now have serious concerns about their future. Unless they are paid with tax dollars, that is.
The Nevada Public Employees’ Retirement System is a wondrous institution—one wonders why policymakers have allowed it to continue so long as currently structured. No retirement system of its kind could ever exist in the private sector, able, as it is, to shift all of its investment risk onto other people.
