Gibbons to Nevada Legislature: "Here my input, ya suckers."
In a churlish gesture of callous disregard for the state of Nevada’s economy, Governor Gibbons has told the State Legislature’s Ways and Means committee that he’s done with the budget and that the budget now is the sole problem of the lawmakers. “When the budget was sent over [on] January 15th, it was balanced. [...] It’s the legislature’s budget now.”
Since the tourist business in NV is currently anemic and in constant flux, especially after the holiday season, the Ways and Means Committee had requested input from the Governor on how the executive planned to deal with declining room tax revenue projections. Since tourism and room taxes are a major source of income for our fair state, it would make sense that the lawmakers have the latest, most accurate information upon which to base their decisions. However, it appears that Gibbons doesn’t want to play. Instead, he’s putting all the state’s eggs into the “Stimulus Money” basket.
Here’s Gibbons’ entire letter to Finance Committee Chairman Morse Arberry:
By letter dated March 2, 2009 you asked the Department of Administration to answer several budget-related questions. I wanted to take the opportunity to personally answer one of tho e questions. The others will be answered by the Department of Administration by way of a separate letter. Specifically, you asked how I plan to address declining forecasts for room tax revenue. The Nevada Constitution requires that I propose a balanced budget to the Legislature before the commencement of the regular session, which I did in January of 2009. Once that budget is proposed, it is up to the Legislature to decide whether to accept or modify that budget. The proposed budget was based on the revenue projections available in January of 2009.
As we both know, revenue projections constantly change as new information becomes available. [well, duh... that's why Chairman Arberry was asking you -- Ed.] The room tax revenue projections referenced in your letter will undoubtedly change several more times as the session proceeds and updated information becomes available. If the Legislature wants to address each and every change in revenue projections then that is certainly the Legislature’s prerogative as the budget is in the Legislature’s control at this point and the Legislature has its own fiscal staff.
However, I feel that projections should not be addressed piecemeal. Therefore, I will be happy to provide further recommendations either in a budget amendment addressing stimulus dollars or after the Economic Forum next meets and provides legally-binding revenue projections.
In a stunned, two page rebuttal, Chairman Arberry said that he “will be forced for the first time in my 15-year tenure as chairman of the committee, and possibly the first time since Nevada became a state, to make decisions without further input from the Governor.” He goes on to chastise the governor in an official letter: (emphasis added)
However, I am truly amazed with your assessment that the Governor’s responsibility ends when the proposed budget is submitted for review by the Legislature. One of the basic understandings of developing any budget is that some of the assumptions that are made will need to be amended due to better information being made available over time or due to changing economic conditions. This fact has been true in the over 20 years that I have been a member or chairman of the Assembly Committee on Ways and Means. Based on this most basic budget premise, as well as past practices of the Chief Executive over the past 30-40 years, and possibly since Nevada became a state, when necessary, Governors have recommended adjustments after the Executive Budget was submitted for legislative review to ensure that estimated revenues and expenditures remain in balance for each fiscal year of the upcoming biennium. However, your letter indicates that the Governor’s responsibility concerning the state’s biennial budget ends when it is submitted for review in advance of the legislative session. I believe you are the only Governor in at least the past 30-40 years that would make such an assertion, and I strongly disagree with your position.
Other than the response you provided to me yesterday, I have yet to receive the information I requested from the Director of the Department of Administration, which was requested to be received no later than March 16. 1 sent this request on March 2 and provided two weeks to allow sufficient time to develop the required information. As you know, the Legislature has only 120 days to complete its work. Providing the Budget Division two weeks to develop this information is as much time as can be allocated; yet as of today, I still do not have a response to the majority of the information I requested. I also have no idea when the requested information may be received. I find this most disturbing and unprecedented in my 15-year tenure as chairman of the AssemblyCommittee on Ways and Means.
“Disturbing” indeed. What we have here is a governor who is either so incompetent that he can’t perform the duties expected of the executive office, or he is so indifferent to the state that he’s refusing to work with the legislature to ensure that Nevada has the best possible budget during this economic crisis. My read on this is that it’s the latter. I betcha that you’ll see the legislature do its best to hammer out a workable budget, only to have Gibbons try to force some last-minute amendments so that they escape in-depth review. Then when the budget fails, he can sanctimoniously blame the legislature while reaping the benefits for himself and his cronies from his last-minute changes. Either way, his behavior is childish and ill-befitting a chief executive whose responsibility is to the citizens of the state.
I wish I could say I’m making all this up. But here’s the letters in question:
Scan of Gibbons’ letter Scan of Arberry’s rebuttal
My advice to Chairman Arberry: You can do a better job than this loser of a governor. You don’t need his mealy-mouthed input anyway.
Tags: budget, economy, gibbons, legislature, nevada, Politics
