Blame guv, not
120-day session for budget slam-and-jam
Chuck
Muth
June
18, 2015
Freshman
Republican Assemblymen Erv Nelson and Chris Edwards appeared on a local PBS community
affairs television show recently and advocated for annual sessions of the
Nevada Legislature.
As
if these people don’t already do enough damage every OTHER year!
The
reason, according to the pair, is that 120 days is supposedly not enough time
to digest the budget and various tax hike proposals. But the shortness of time in 2015 had nothing
whatsoever to do with the 120-day session.
The main reason is that Gov. Brian Sandoval hid his budget plan and tax
hike proposals until his state-of-the-state address at the end of January.
And
make no mistake; there was no excuse for such a delay.
Leading
up to the 2015 session, Sandoval had already been governor for four years. And unlike legislators, his is a full-time
job with a full-time army of taxpayer-funded number-crunchers and
bean-counters. There is absolutely no
reason why the governor couldn’t have released his plans during his 2014
re-election campaign rather than almost three months after it.
Indeed,
Sandoval didn’t even face a viable, credible political opponent in the election
to worry about. Democrats ended up
nominating a standard bearer who lost in the primary to “None of the above”! The governor essentially phoned it in.
No,
the decision to hide his budget and tax hike plans was with the 120-day session
limit in mind, and for the sole purpose of shortening the amount of time the
opposition would have to coalesce.
Not
that the Republican majority in the Assembly was blameless. Everyone and their uncle knew Sandoval’s
original gross receipts tax proposal was DOA in the lower house as soon as the
governor announced it. But instead of
publicly saying so then and there, the hapless GOP “leaders” went through the
charade of being “deliberative.”
Thus,
the governor’s original plan wasn’t ultimately rejected until May, as the
session was winding down and legislators began focusing more on how to avoid
staying in Carson City for a special session than on good, fiscal policy.
So
yes, by the time the governor’s Plan B mutant tax hike - combining the worst of
all the tax hike proposals into one omnibus bill – finally was set before
legislators, time was running out. Rules
were suspended. Slam-and-jam time, baby!
So
yes, the time to consider the final budget and tax hike plan was short. But not because of anything that allowing
these people to meet every year would fix.
The true fix would be for the governor to disclose his/her policy plans
during the campaign season, introduce his/her budget much earlier before the
start of the session, and for legislators to hit the ground running on Day 1
instead of Day 118.
So
let it be written; so let it be done.
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(Mr.
Muth is president of Citizen Outreach and the publisher of www.NevadaNewsandViews.com. He personally blogs at www.MuthsTruths.com)
You can read this column online, as well as access archives
of past Muth's Truths columns by clicking here... www.MuthsTruths.com |
Thursday, June 18, 2015
MUTH'S TRUTHS 06/18/2015
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