Lawmakers look to public for ideas

By Joe Schoenmann

Monday, Oct. 6, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Two powerful Democratic lawmakers are gathering ideas from the public on how to fix the state budget.

The opportunity to speak about the budget crisis, which has cut funding for education and other services, played well with the few hundred people who showed up last week at the public forums hosted separately by Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley and state Senate Minority Leader Steven Horsford.

“I think this town hall meeting, I was hungry for it,” Louise Helton said to applause. “I wish all legislators would do this, I really do. I think it’s a great start.”

But based on the citizen input, it’s unclear what ideas will emerge that can be taken to the 2009 Legislature. Many of the ideas have been proposed before, only to go down to defeat at the hands of powerful interests.

One solution the public put forth frequently won’t likely be on the table when lawmakers convene in February.

“We have the 46th-lowest tax burden” in the nation,” said Kay Godbey, before suggesting the state adopt a sales tax on services and additional mining taxes (which would require amending the state constitution) and eliminate depreciation on real property values for property tax purposes, among other ideas.

“How about an extraction tax on gold, silver, platinum, uranium,” added Denise Kelley. “That’s what you can get done.”

Yet before holding his town hall meeting, Horsford made it clear he would not support new taxes in a bad economy.

As for Buckley, when asked whether she would consider raising taxes, should residents call for it during the public forums, she replied that “all ideas” would be “considered.” Some read that as a no.

Gov. Jim Gibbons has vowed to veto any tax increase, saying Nevada has a spending problem.

Resident Syd Rudich noted the tough position Buckley, who is considering a run for governor in 2010, would face in advocating higher taxes.

“When you mention taxes, everyone goes running,” he said.

At her forum, Buckley walked the group through a step-by-step PowerPoint presentation that demonstrated how poorly the state ranks in many categories.

• 46th from the lowest in the rate of high school dropouts.

• Last in infants and toddlers fully immunized.

• First in suicides of those 65 and older.

The problems are well known.

In policy circles, at least, so are some of the solutions.

Five years ago, Guy Hobbs helped write the “book” on the state’s budget system, on how it collects taxes, where its revenue pitfalls lie and what the state might do to fix them. An economic consultant and former finance chief for Clark County, Hobbs headed a task force formed by then-Gov. Kenny Guinn after the state hit a relatively minor budgetary bump.

The way to increase the state’s tax base was painstakingly detailed in the 2003 report, Hobbs said.

“We know which ones would take a legislative act or constitutional modification. There are pages and pages of revenue alternatives used elsewhere in the country or in the world. We ranked them based on principles of equitability, stability, predictability. We used every measure we could possibly think of,” he said, . “I tend to get a little frustrated when talking about it. We’ve already written the manual on this.”

A few of the ideas — including a tax increase on gross payrolls and on real estate transfers — became law and the state saw a revenue increase of about $800 million.

A major part of the new revenue was consumed meeting demands for services exacted by the state’s skyrocketing population.

Today, population growth has undoubtedly slowed with the economic downturn.

As Buckley pointed out, however, the state still lags in almost every measure of education, health and public safety. She has talked about shifting around money, encouraging green businesses to move here, and prioritizing spending. Her mantra is that Nevada took decades to get to this point, and it won’t turn around overnight.

She also said she values the ideas of Nevada residents. It’s why she’s holding the town hall meetings, the next one in Reno tonight.

In just a few months, speakers at these meetings will learn how well Buckley was listening.