Posts Tagged ‘gibbons’

We’re Winning the Race to the Bottom

Monday, February 1st, 2010

We’re Winning the Race to the Bottom
by
David Schlecht

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Nevada’s budget outlook is so bleak that lawmakers doubt whether state government can remain afloat without drastic cuts to everything from prisons to schools to state parks and services for the poor and elderly.

Legislators met Tuesday with Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons to discuss how they will cope with a short-term deficit of about $900 million during an upcoming special session of the Legislature. Some Democratic lawmakers acknowledge options to bridge the gap probably won’t include tax increases.
…
Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, said pay cuts and layoffs for state employees are probably inevitable.

“These are drastic, drastic cuts. I would be surprised if some folks didn’t lose their jobs,” Oceguera said.
…
Taylor said such a cut would hit lower-wage employees extremely hard, especially because some lower-paying jobs are held by single parents raising children. There had been talks that salary cuts would be made only to employees earning more than $40,000 a year.

Oceguera was uncertain whether it would be considered “a socialist type thing” to tailor pay cuts according to earnings.

A Chamber of Commerce study released earlier this month found state and local government employees in 2008 earned an average pay of $55,657 in 2008, sixth highest among states and $6,800 higher than the national average. For state employees alone, the average pay was $55,266.

Teacher pay in Nevada averaged $48,257 a year in 2008, below the $50,852 national average, according to the chamber study. University and community college faculty members in Nevada earn $69,282 on average, compared with the national average of $72,959.

The study also found that Nevada has the fewest number of public employees on a per capita basis in the country, at 43.7 per 1,000 residents.

But Gibbons, who sets the agenda for the session, has long said he would veto any tax increases.

“Our only real option,” Horsford said, “is to eliminate or reduce spending.”

This is absolutely shocking. Gibbons is leading us in a race to the bottom.

Nevada state and local government employees get paid more than the average. That means the local employees get paid more than the average and the state employees get paid considerably less than average. But, that’s not what the Chamber of Commerce says since they might have a little difficulty being objective in this matter. What on earth are they even involved for? They’re the enemy and part of what made our current mess.

This seems so terribly obvious to any casual observer to be a race to the bottom. Nevada has been groveling at the bottom of everything important for so long, we just don’t know what to do if we’re not dead last. We seem to be winning the race to be the first state to resemble Haiti. Let’s all compete to see how low we can pay our state employees. Soon we’ll all be greeted by illegal aliens at the state agencies because they’ll work for less than Americans will. Is that what we want in America?

They’re afraid to affect the rich more than the poor because they’re afraid it’ll sound Socialist? This has to be about the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in a while. When was it considered Socialist to expect those who benefit the most from society to pay the most? Socialist? If this is Socialism, then America’s founding fathers were all Socialists. They expected everyone to pay their fair share. Shame on you for disparaging the names of our forefathers!

And, if you were paying attention, Nevada is paying our educators well below the average. Obviously we’re dead last in education. We only get back what we’re willing to invest. We should be having a race to see how much more money we can put back in the hands of the middle and lower class and we should be expecting the wealthy to start paying their fair share.

Gibbon, oh what a fine example of Republican principles. No new taxes. We wouldn’t want the billionaires to pay their fair share, now would we? No, let’s just take it out of the pockets of those who need it the most.

When will America start to realize that this Republican approach is destroying our country?

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Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 2 Comments »

Conservative Bankrupt Policies

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Conservatives’ Bankrupt Policies
by
David Schlecht

Nevada’s governor, Jim Gibbons, is your typical Republican politician. He has joined the cult swearing allegiance to “no new taxes” when it is supposed to be allegiance to the state of Nevada. In fact, Nevada has been almost strictly Republican for decades and when not strictly Republican their governor has still been a conservative Democrat.

And, what has this voting record brought to Nevada? As stated in an earlier post, we’re first in discouraged voters, last in education, first in bankruptcies, almost worst in unemployment, and almost last in most other indicators of a first world state.

One would think that even the really bone headed would eventually get tired of sticking their tongues on the frozen flag pole, but Nevada proves that there is no end to the stream of illogical voting.

Gibbons swears “no new taxes” while the rich get away without paying their fair share and the middle class get straddled with supporting the lazy stingy or just unethical rich. The only solution Gibbons has for fixing the state’s tax revenue shortfall is to take it out of the budgets of the state workers.

The first string of cuts stole 5% from the paychecks of every Nevada civil servant and in most cases, over a thousand dollars in benefits. For anyone who knows anything about state pay scales, you know that state employees are generally paid considerably less than employees in the private sector.

By “considerably less” I mean it is common to see state employees getting 20% less than similar jobs in the private sector. One of the few reasons why employees agree to work for such low wages is that benefits can make up for the difference.

I’m not talking about benefits that the state pays for as much as I’m saying a large employer can self insure its employees. Once the employer controls the insurance, they can control the costs and avoid the problem with unethical insurance companies dropping coverage for people when they need it.

So, Gibbon’s first round of cuts was on the backs of the state workers. Today he says he’s planning to steal more money from hard working Nevadans while chanting the cult mantra, “no new taxes”.

If you don’t expect the wealthy to pay their fair share, you end up with a state like Nevada and a country like the USA.

When will Nevada and the rest of America realize that conservative policies are destroying America.

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Posted in Politics | 2 Comments »

Bringing Up the Rear

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Bringing Up the Rear
by
David Schlecht

Well, Nevada made it into the national news again, today. Not because of our slimeball Republican governor, not because of our slimeball adulterous Congressman, not because of our Nuclear waste repository. No, not because of any of those things, but because we’re number one in bankruptcies, almost number one in unemployment, and dead last for our education. Thank you governor Gibbons.

So, since we’re the country’s smartest voters (that’s sarcasm for you Nevadans), I guess that explains why we have almost a strict republican voting record. Makes one proud, doesn’t it?

Even with our past two governors swearing “No New Taxes” and reducing government to the point where Nevada is no better off than Haiti, we’re obviously no better off for our Republican rulers. Hey Nevadans, the republican approach to destroying America is not working for making this a better country. I guess that’s why they call this Ne-va-DUH. Not the sharpest saw in the box. This isn’t really a box of hammers.

Of course, you would never expect a Nevada republican voter to understand that. Maybe this is a box of hammers after all.

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Posted in Politics | 4 Comments »

Economies Requiring Growth

Friday, April 10th, 2009

Economies Requiring Growth
by
David Schlecht

We have discussed many of the roadblocks to success that are fundamental to America’s economy. Today we’ll discuss the pending disaster of an economy based on unlimited growth.

Let’s look at Nevada for a prime example of an economy that is crumbling, not only because of the Free Market insanity, but because of a model requiring unending growth.

Most people realize that Nevada is a desert, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by the vacant stare of our Governor Gibbons. As a desert, our communities are limited by available resources, and being a desert, one of the most critical resources is water. So what happens when we have more people than the water supply can support?

Well, of course, the industry lobbyists are saying that we can’t stop constructing new homes and schools and strip malls, so we must force people to conserve more and more.

So, in Nevada, we’re forcing the voters to use less and less water so they can continue to build more and more homes adding to more and more traffic and more and more crime and more and more congestion.

Eventually, there will come a point where you can’t ration the water any more and the population will level off, or more likely, decline as everyone will want to leave the stinking cesspool left behind.

Population growth will come to an end!

Since a large part of our economy is driven by the construction industry, a large part of our economy will falter, as will all the industries relying on that industry, like the many strip malls.

Right now, today, is time to start implementing building moratoriums when we see that our resources are unable to keep pace with population. If we wait, like Nevada, until it’s too late, then population will actually fall, and that will destroy the housing industry and the property values of all those unable to flee the disaster.

Again, this isn’t rocket sience, so why doesn’t Gibbons, or your own governor see this pending disaster and start constraining growth? It’s time you reminded them that you’re watching and paying attention.

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Posted in Finance, General | 3 Comments »