State to squeak by on 'less money than we started with.' Heh, heh

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Tue, 12 Jun 2001 18:13:32 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JUNE 7, 2001
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
State to squeak by on 'less money than we started with.' Heh, heh

And so the Year 2001 Nevada legislative session has ground to an end with the enactment of a record $3.8 billion two-year budget -- swelling to $10.4 billion when federal funds are added in -- all in all 20 percent higher than Nevada's current state government budget.

Remember all that talk about a "budget crisis" -- how education funding was going to have to be "cut by $121 million," with school officials melodramatically waving their arms and ululating that this would mean the end of art and music classes and after-school sports? (Funny how they always threaten to cut that stuff -- not grounds maintenance, or a dozen assistant superintendents in charge of paper-pushing, or the budget for staff travel and out-of-state seminars.)

Well, just over half of Nevada's total state funding -- $2 billion -- is earmarked for Nevada's schools, including $13.4 million to start building a brand-new state college in Henderson, which is necessary (despite the fact it would cost far less to simply expand existing community colleges) because ... well, because Richard Perkins of Henderson is a powerful state legislator, and Henderson wants its own state college, even though they're going to end up siting it in a derelict industrial park.

Yep, these boys were really turning their pockets inside out. Amazing they could afford sandwiches.

State support for local public schools will increase over the next two years on a per-pupil basis from a current level of $3,804 to $3,991 -- an increase of 5 percent even after the anticipated growth of the student population is taken into account.

"This is one of the few times we've ended the session with the realization that we have less money than what we started with," commented Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, who went on to add that "many people felt we were on an impossible mission" to make up the "revenue shortfall" which will see the state spend 20 percent more in the next two years.

Yes, you read that right. And no, so far as can be determined Sen. Raggio is not insane; he's merely a politician. Since lawmakers at one point faced the horrifying prospect of being able to slather only 17 percent more purloined wealth on their favorite projects than they do now (instead of 20 percent more), they promptly began baying and moaning about facing a 3 percent "budget cut" ... a calamity avoided only when they decided to stick it to Nevada corporations (and car-rental firms are still in line for another hit) with higher taxes and fees.

"Public safety," which includes a booming prison system made necessary by the state's onerous drug possession laws (even though they were just relaxed) gets $437 million -- up about 20 percent. Another $1.1 billion goes to "human services," the newest absurd euphemism (did anyone think the state was funding a lot of "animal services" or "vegetable services"?) for welfare, handouts to pensioners, and psychiatric mumbo-jumbo -- up more than 20 percent.

The state's nearly 16,000 employees were taken care of with a 4 percent pay hike next year ... followed by another 4 percent raise in the second budget year. And for about half the state's work force, pay will increase by an additional 5 percent this July 1 because of the addition of another step in the state pay scale.

Do most of the taxpayers footing the bill for all this largesse expect to see their own paychecks go up by 13 percent in the next two years? Of course not. If there's any "budget crisis" in Nevada, it begins to look like that "crisis" will occur only in the "budgets" of hard-working families who are shelling out to feather the nests of these long-suffering bureaucrats.

And by the way, in the special session which the governor will now call to handle redistricting -- a minor matter the lawmakers just couldn't find time to get to, so busy were they debating the new state animal and whether it should be illegal for young people to play with laser-pointers or turn up their boom boxes too loud -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, says one matter still urgently to be dealt with is AB460, raising the taxes of rent-a-car companies by $24 million to fund ... oh, you guessed it, didn't you? ... a 3 percent bonus for public school teachers next year, followed by at least a 2 percent raise in the second year -- or maybe 4 percent, if the new state business taxes rake in enough.

Hee-Hah! Oh, sorry. Cue funeral dirge -- woe is us. The state faces a "budget crisis." Why, there's hardly any money left to buy the poor schoolkids scissors and construction paper. The state now has "less money than it used to." Oh, woe is us.

Snicker, snicker.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Subscribe to his monthly newsletter by sending $72 to Privacy Alert, 1475 Terminal Way, Suite E for Easy, Reno, NV 89502 -- or dialing 775-348-8591. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at 1-800-244-2224.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

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Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair

End the War on Freedom

State to squeak by on 'less money than we started with.' Heh, heh