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

In a perfect world, professional boards would serve to protect consumers. Unfortunately, this is seldom the case; the boards take it upon themselves to protect their profession. Take for example the Chiropractic Physicians’ Board of Nevada.

In 1999, then-governor Kenny Guinn appointed Dr. Larry Davis to the board.  Davis pushed through a regulation that permitted chiropractors to treat patients with whom they were sexually intimate, as long as the patient signed an “informed consent” waiver.  This regulation flew in the face of accepted standards of professional conduct.  M.D.s, dentists, and–up to this point–chiropractors would refer their significant others to a different provider.  Davis, in 2003, slipped the provision through as part of a larger package of regulations dealing with professional conduct, with the approval of fellow board members, Drs. Clyde Porter and Ian Yamane.

If a new patient signed a waiver that happened to have had this provision lurking in the endless stream of fine print that no-one ever reads, then unscrupulous doctors could weasel their way into a relationship with the patient, and then point out the waiver if the patient complained. In Colorado, this is a “violation of trust by a person in position of authority,” and it’s a class 3 felony. However, ethical considerations had no influence over Larry Davis. 

Other members of the board were stunned when they discovered the provision.  From the Las Vegas Review Journal: Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: gibbons, medical, Politics

You’ve probably heard about this. Northern Trust, one of the many reckless banks at the root of the current financial crisis, has been greedily slurping at the TARP bailout teat to the tune of $1.5 Billion dollars. Meanwhile, once they got the money, Northern Trust a) sponsored a PGA tournament. b) Flew clients and employees to California and put them up in 5 star hotels, like the Ritz-Carlton. c) Hired entertainment acts such as Chicago,  Earth, Wind and Fire, and Sheryl Crow.

Now, a fiscally-responsible conservative should have been up in a dither with righteous indignation. However, it was the Dems and not the GOP that fired off this salvo to the CEO of National Trust demanding that they pay back the money “frittered away on these lavish events”:

Mr. Frederick H. Waddell
President and Chief Executive Officer
Northern Trust
50 South LaSalle
Chicago, IL 60603

Dear Mr. Waddell:

We are dismayed and angered to learn that Northern Trust recently spent millions of dollars on a PGA golf tournament sponsorship and associated parties at the same time it has taken over $1.5 billion in federal stabilization funding under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. According to published media reports, your bank not only sponsored the Northern Trust tournament at the Riviera Country Club, but also hosted clients and employees at places like the Beverly Wilshire and Ritz Carlton hotels and gave away Tiffany souvenirs. If this is accurate, we are demanding you take corrective action.

At a time when millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, businesses and consumers are in dire need of credit, and the government is trying to keep financial institutions – including yours – alive with billions in taxpayer funds, this behavior demonstrates extraordinary levels of irresponsibility and arrogance.

We insist that you immediately return to the federal government the equivalent of what Northern Trust frittered away on these lavish events. Federal taxpayers should not and will not stand for such abuses, and we will insist that any future Treasury support for Northern Trust be conditioned on a thorough reform of your company’s policies and practices.

We look forward to your reply and immediate reimbursement of these funds.

Sincerely,

Reps. Barney Frank, Carolyn Maloney, Brad Sherman, Dennis Moore, Wm Lacy Clay, Stephen F. Lynch, Brad Miller, Al Green, Gwen Moore, Paul W. Hodes, Keith Ellison, Charles Wilson, Bill Foster, Andre Carson, Mary Jo Kilroy, Steve Driehaus, Alan Grayson, Gary Peters

(source: blog of the Speaker of the House)

Tags: democrats, economy, Politics

According to current Nevada law (NRS 338.080), contractors working on public projects costing more than $100,000 must pay their workers the prevailing wage.  Essentially, this means that contractors are not allowed to hose their employees by paying them minimum wage if they work on a project funded by the taxpayers.

Gardnerville’s own Republican Assemblyman James Settelmeyer has co-sponsored a new bill which will destroy the fair wage provision of the existing law. AB195 was introduced on February 18th by a whole gaggle of Republican Assemblymen and one Republican Senator:  Goicoechea, Goedhart, Hardy, Cobb, Carpenter, Christensen,  Grady, Hambrick, and Senator Rhoads.

AB195 raises the minimum cost requirement from $100,000 to $3,000,000.  In other words, the Republicans have eagerly listened to their Big Developer contributors and have hosed Nevada’s citizens. In these tough times, your average working Joe could sure use a paycheck that meets prevailing wage standards instead of some minimum wage stipend.

What is different about a project that costs $250,000 versus a project that costs $4 million? The construction workers do the same work. Just because a project may cost less than $3 million doesn’t mean that the work itself is any easier.  Let’s say one contractor gets a job fixing a pedestrian bridge over the Truckee River for two million dollars.  Then, compare that to another contractor that gets to build a highway bridge for fifteen million dollars. What’s the difference to the workers? A skilled welder still makes the same fillet weld on either project. A supervisor directing a concrete crew still has to know how to complete a successful pour. If a pre-stressed concrete beam falls on a worker’s leg, the injury is the same. If a worker slips and falls from either project, they get killed. Why should the workers on the less-expensive project be paid less?

It’s because Republicans like Settelmeyer have allied themselves with big business and developer interests that only have greed as a motive. There is no concern whatsoever for the working families of Nevada; it doesn’t matter if they vote Republican or Democrat; they are only annoying gnats to politicians that suckle at the teats of big business. This is exactly the kind of behavior that destroyed America’s economic stability over the last 8 years, and it’s disgusting to see it continue today.

Keep your eye on Settelmeyer. He’s also submitted Bill Draft Request 28-387 which would further limit prevailing wage requirements to only a few counties.

Tags: Developers, economics, Gardnerville, nevada, Politics, republicans, settelmeyer

The disastrous budget cuts put forth by Governor Gibbons will cause outrageous, long-term harm to our state. Here’s the quick precis:

*A 6% cut in state worker salaries. This includes teachers.
*An across-the-boards 7.1% cut in per-pupil funding.

Plus, our government is already operating with a skeleton crew, which has gained Nevada the ignominious honor of consistently ranking near the top of “Worst in the Nation” lists.

*A bloody, 36% cut in higher education budgets.

The biggest losses are to University of Nevada – Reno’s core budget, which includes instruction and research. The university has seven other separate budgets that will be cut as well. These other budgets fund programs that include the athletic department, the medical school, the Agricultural Experiment Station, and the statewide Nevada Cooperative Extension, but these budgets are not taking as much of a hit as the core. This outrageous cut is going to decimate the University and College system in Nevada. Not even counting the drastic increases in tuition, wholesale loss of instructional programs, research, and facilities will drive students out of state.  Less students = less tuition income = more cuts. This is the start of a Death Spiral. The shock waves of a loss of core programs at a university will reverberate through the other programs.

As it always happens, the athletic department is protected from the big cuts. “Ooooh! You can take all them Librul Arts purfessers out back and shoot ‘em, but don’t touch our foo-ball team! It Makes Money!” Well, they’re taking a hit too. High school athletes exploring their collegiate options these days also look at educational opportunities provided by prospective universities. If UNR or UNLV can only tell a prospective sports star, “Umm…well, you get to play football,” the prospective student athlete will explore better opportunities in other states. Looks like the vaunted “Wolfpack” is going to become a “Weiner-dog Pack” if Gibbons has his way.

*Closing mental health clinics.

This inhumane and vicious cut will only drive the mentally ill to hospital emergency rooms, and it will burden an already-overstretched EMS system. Even without budget cuts, there are already not enough psych beds in the state to provide for citizens who need help, and slashing outpatient access for these patients will overwhelm an already-overworked system. Gibbons’ budget cut for mental health clinics smacks of Republican cruelty and the right-wing belief that it’s not worth spending money on mental health. This relegates those suffering from mental illness and developmental disabilities to an Untouchable caste that will languish in the backwaters of the state’s healthcare system, and, in the end, cost even more money.

I’m sure that Gibbons and his ilk view mental illness as a “lifestyle choice,” just like being gay. I wouldn’t wish an Axis I disorder on anyone, but I’m starting to rethink that. If we could foist a case of paranoid schizophrenia on Gibbons for a day, maybe…

*Cutting reimbursements to doctors and hospitals.

Even though meager, Medicaid sustains the health of innumerable seniors and impoverished citizens in this state. Now that we’re staring at layoffs and slashed wages, there’s going to be even more candidates for state support. Thanks to healthcare cuts elsewhere, doctors and hospitals will be facing increased patient loads, but now Gibbons has reduced their reimbursement. I fear that hospitals and rural clinics, already tenuously hanging on, will be stretched beyond their breaking points and will be forced to close.

Thanks to Gibbons’ budget, I predict a healthcare disaster in the near future.

But, hey! Gibbering Gibbons has kept his campaign promise of “no new taxes.”  He’s managed to protect the bank accounts of the wealthy few, and as a result, he has destroyed the rest of us. I believe that you get what you pay for, and I’ve lived in other states where the taxes provided a demonstrable return in services, and, although I grumbled about it like everyone else, I was willing to pay my fair share to promote the common good.  The libertarian right-wingers in Nevada would rather see the state collapse than examine the concept of taxing the wealthy few. They’re standing in the smoking wreckage of our burned-down house and proudly proclaiming, “Well, at least we don’t got termites!”

Looking at our pathetic state, what business is going to want to relocate here? Well, I suppose with a burgeoning surplus of uneducated, unhealthy, and mentally-ill peasants, it will provide a readily-disposable workforce that’s unable to fight back.

To read a good article about the human costs of “mini-chimpy” Gibbons’ budget, take a look at this Las Vegas Sun article.

Tags: budget, economics, gibbons, nevada, Politics

Ding-ding! And the fighters come out of their corners! Here’s the first punch thrown in the latest round of Foxy Boxing between Nevada’s Lieutenant Governor Brian Krolicki and Governor Jim Gibbons. From a posting by Anjeanette Damon at the Reno Gazette-Journal:

“I did not engage Mr. Krolicki in this fight,” [Gibbons] said. “All I did was say that the state’s number one industry, tourism, deserved to be dealt with appropriately with somebody in there as director. The longer we take the harder it becomes for us to recover the tourism department.”

Gibbons’ press secretary then ushered the governor away from any follow up questions.

Sometimes, the only defense is to have your press secretary forcibly drag your ass out of political danger. Overlooking the blunt fact that Gibs’s attempt to give the post to a crony was blatantly illegal, his denial that he was flinging poo at Krolicki like a psychotic monkey is laughable. The sanctimonious, “I’m just misunderstood” act only works if there is some essence of sanctity about the speaker. I can just hear him now: “Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m a man of wealth and taste…”

Ms. Damon succinctly raises a couple of valid points:

1) Why is the Gibster so interested in illegally shoehorning his little friend into a $117,000 job at the Tourism Board when one of his stated goals is to merge the Tourism Board into the Economic Development board?

2) Giblets has No. F-ing. Clue. about how devastating his budget is. Witness this press conference exchange as reported in the RGJ article:

In defending the 6 percent salary cut, Gibbons said the state will avoid “wholesale layoffs.” Asked if his budget avoids layoffs altogether, Gibbons started to say yes when [budget director] Clinger stopped him to correct him.

“I think we will have avoided layoffs,” Gibbons said.

“Not completely,” Clinger answered.

“How many?” Gibbons asked.

“We are calculating that number right now,” Clinger responded.

Way to be in touch with your constituency, Governor. Oh, wait… the only constituency he cares about is the fatcat minority who slathers him in money, donates to his legal defense fund, and throws parties for the GOP.

Check out Anjeanette Damon’s other insights here.  Worthwhile.

Tags: gibbons, krolicki, nevada, Politics

In a show of sycophantic support of the Worst Governor Ever, our illustrious state representative from Gardnerville, James Settelmeyer, has publicly endorsed Governor Gibbons’ rapacious budget cuts.  In a statement on the Douglas County Republicans website, he superficially laments:

“If increased taxes are implemented at a time when so many of our state’s residents and businesses are struggling, it will further slow our economic recovery. Due to the economy, families are having to do without. Businesses are having to reduce jobs, wages and expenses. The government must do the same. Otherwise we will push families and businesses past the breaking point”

Oooh! I see Republican talking points! Taxes and Families and Values, oh my!

In the very same statement, he goes on to say that he supports the “elimination or suspension of the prevailing wage law.”

So…in a remarkable display of Republican callousness, he says, in essence,  “Higher taxes will hurt families.”  Then he says, “Cut their wages instead.”  Finally, in a starry burst of Norquistian splendor, he supports Gibbons’ proposed “slash and burn” of Nevada’s government, which will result in the layoffs of hundreds of workers, the loss of essential services, and the destruction of our educational system.

Let me see if I got this right…  taxes are bad for the economy and bad for families.  Slashing wages, eliminating jobs, and forcing families into unemployment lines and onto welfare is good for the economy and good for families.  Oh, okay.  Class act there, Mr. Settelmeyer. If you support wholesale layoffs and wage cuts of family breadwinners, then where does the magic money come from that sustains our economic viability?

If you’ll excuse me, it’s time to join the other peasants in the fields.

Tags: Douglas County, gibbons, nevada, Politics, republicans, settlemeyer

The Washoe County commission have delayed voting on permits for the wind turbines slated for Virginia and Pah Rah Peaks until February 4th. Things look pretty shaky for the proposed wind farm.

The residents of Warm Springs Valley just west of the turbine site, have attended the most recent commission meeting and have voiced valid concerns over road traffic, turbine noise, transmission lines, and land values. The National Weather Service is also asking the project developers to detail plans ensuring that the massive turbine blades don’t interfere with the Doppler radar installation on Virginia Peak.

Since eighty percent of Nevada is unavailable for wind farm projects due to military restrictions or wilderness designations, there isn’t much space left for wind farms. Although the residents of Warm Springs Valley have a legitimate beef with the project, I’m hoping that they can iron out the differences so that the project can proceed. Nevada doesn’t have much going for it at the moment, other than an abundance of sunlight and wind.

Now, in light of this recent development, consider again the egregiously-sprawling Winnemucca Ranch project. Those developers have unctuously promised to make the project “green” by building a nearby windfarm to power the McMansions slated to sprout across the landscape. Like most developers’ promises, the Winnemucca wind farm/green concept are just fluffy, pump-and-dump bits to entice politicians into approving the projects.  I’m seriously annoyed that the Reno City Council, while reclining on Roman couches stuffed with developer money, has approved the Winnemucca Ranch project complete with a vapor-ware wind farm while Washoe County commissioners are threatening to put the kibosh on an honestly-viable alternative energy project. Which project will benefit the citizens of Northern Nevada more?

In related news, the aforementioned NWS Doppler radar on Virginia Peak was torn apart and destroyed this week by a 140-mph wind gust. I’m just trying to imagine a broken, 240-foot turbine rotor assembly flying through the air at that speed. That would be like a helicopter from hell.

Tags: Alternative Energy, Developers, Politics, power, reno

What’s a God-fearing red state supposed to do?

Gambling is a sin, right? Sin is evil, right? For the 11th straight month, tax revenue from gambling has fallen. Since sins and depravities, both personal and environmental,  fuel our state economy, this is bad news. Since NV unemployment is rampant and we lead the nation in foreclosures, I doubt that a state income tax would be faring much better.

So for the Law-n-Order crowd,  less gambliness is closer to Godliness. For the rest of us, it’s one step closer to going into default.

C’mon folks! Exercise your civic duty and drain your retirement funds at the Nugget and keep Nevada going!

Tags: gambling, nevada, Politics