Bring on budget input

Friday, April 10, 2009 | 2 a.m.

At a news conference in Carson City last week, Nevada legislative leaders told reporters that the state would need an additional $2.16 billion over the next two years to cover a projected shortfall in general fund revenue. That’s the amount of money necessary to simply maintain existing services.

No one has recommended a specific plan to make up that difference. But prominent Southern Nevadan and Focus Property Group CEO John Ritter said at the news conference that the state won’t be able to balance the budget by resorting only to cuts. That draconian approach is the one favored by Gov. Jim Gibbons who has disengaged himself from the budget process even though the projected revenue deficit keeps growing.

“I will say that I am not seeing in the business community what I have seen in the past, which is, ‘Don’t tax us, we pay enough already,’ ” Ritter told reporters.

Ritter, in fact, said he thinks the business community can pay $1 billion in new taxes. Ritter and 12 other leaders who represent a broad range of Nevada business interests have been meeting diligently since January to give input to legislators.

“Everything is on the table,” Ritter said.

That is how it should be.

Given the diversity of the business advisory team — with members including the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, Nevada Mining Association and major gaming companies — the result should be a budget proposal that is forward-thinking. That is the opposite of the blueprint offered by the governor. Many business leaders recognize, for instance, that Gibbons’ proposal to cut higher education’s budget by 36 percent would do irreparable harm to the state.

The Legislature needs budget input from open-minded individuals who understand what is at stake if lawmakers simply decimate state government, and it appears that is what legislators are getting.