Where I Stand -- Brian Greenspun: A job to be done

I haven't even been to the first meeting of the Governor's Task Force on Tax Policy in Nevada and already the criticism is flying. Not because of the task force itself but, it seems, because I am one of the eight members appointed to study the ways and means this state is going to pay for what it needs over the next few decades. It is a classic example of what I and many others have believed is the root cause of what is wrong in America and what has been wrong ever since the days when Watergate was a new word in the political lexicon of the United States.

So, rather than ignore the cards and letters and, may I say, a column or two in the Las Vegas SUN (we won't even acknowledge those snipes in the other paper because they are as expected as a knee jerking upward at, mostly, nothing at all), I think I should address the complaints before they have their desired effect of muddling the results of the task force.

Ever since the Watergate episode, people have rightly questioned the ethics and morality of their elected leaders. Mostly, I suspect, to help the voters make sure that paranoids and others similarly situated leave their resumes and their political ambitions outside the election process. As in everything -- I mean EVERYTHING -- we do in this country, we swung the pendulum from one side of knowing not very much about our elected leaders to the other side, where we have come to know far too much about them. So much so that our leaders look too much like the rest of us which, if we are truthful in admitting such things, frightens us.

All that has empowered various groups to question ad nauseum anything and everything about each and every public effort to the point at which the questioning and finger-pointing becomes a game and those who give themselves to public service become the targets of that game rather than the protagonists within it. That is what I believe is already happening to the governor's task force, thanks, I am told, to my being on it. How absurd!

Jon Ralston was among the first to criticize -- not the quality of the person chosen, that would be me, but the mental state of the person who made the selection, that would be the Speaker of the Nevada Assembly, Richard Perkins. Jon expressed his concern in the context of my being an additional lightning rod for the Review-Journal, whose editorial policy in opposition to almost everything progressive in this world is well known to Nevadans. He thought it would give them just one more reason to say nyet to anything good that might come from the hard work of the task force members and an added incentive to use their perceived but negligible clout to cower the legislators and the governor into non-action. He thought Perkins was foolish to appoint me for that reason.

Let me say this about that: it makes no difference to the Review-Journal who is on that task force because that newspaper will be against whatever we come up with if it has anything to do with revenue raising and spending in the state of Nevada. Everyone already knows that, so why lose sleep over the inevitable? The smart people in this state will do what they always do when it comes to the R-J's opinion. They'll ignore it.

Ralston was absolutely right in one respect. The governor and Legislature took a cowardly duck last session from doing the job the people elected them to do. Namely, fix what ails this state in the way it raises revenues and the way it spends it. Instead, they conjured up this task force, which is designed to take the heat from the voters. It is always easier for the electeds to say they are merely following the recommendations of the task force rather than to accept responsibility for the leadership required to do the job themselves. But that's the political landscape the voters have forced upon themselves and that's what we have to live with until we, the people, smarten up.

So much for the obvious. What is also quite clear is that Nevada is in a lot of trouble. We are the fastest-growing state in the country and one of the wealthiest, too. And yet we rank at or near the bottom in almost every category that judges quality of life. How can that be? Why should that be?

What our state needs is a stable, fair and adequate revenue system that will allow, in good times and bad, the necessary funding for those governmental efforts that our elected leadership deems appropriate -- at all levels of government. What we have is just the opposite. Consider the latest news this past week in which Gov. Kenny Guinn is not considering dipping into the rainy-day fund -- which means he will if necessary -- because our tax revenues are way off the mark. That is no way to plan for and run the machinery that makes our lives work better.

Can we do all that without raising the overall tax pool? Maybe. If we can, we should. But, if we can't, then it seems to me that we should provide the input to the Legislature and governor that will allow them to make responsible choices for a better Nevada. So, that's my bias. I suspect that each of the other members of the task force have other biases that may or may not comport with mine. That's why we have a year to figure this mess out and reach some consensus.

I can tell you this. If there are new taxes proposed; if there are increases in existing revenue streams; and if I we do what I think we should (without being persuaded otherwise), then each and every increase will affect me and my family at least as much and, most likely, far greater than almost every other person in the state. In short, I will be acting against my own pecuniary interests by practicing what I have preached through this column ever since I was old enough to understand what needed to be done. If that makes me foolish, I can handle the criticism.

But, when Richard Perkins put my name forward for this task force, he was anything but foolish because he knows that with me he gets a person completely open to any idea -- new or old -- as long as it makes this state I love a better one. Even if they are not in my short-term financial interests. For, what I know and what the folks down the street and across the street who are content to snipe without knowledge don't know, is that I don't need this job.

What I need is to know that I have done all I can to improve the state I love and which has been very good to me, my family and my friends. If I can help put it back in shape so the next generation of Nevadans can prosper, then I will be happy. And so will hundreds and thousands of other Nevadans. That is the same goal, I believe, which motivates the other members of the group. It is called good citizenship.

Call us foolish, if you must. But, when good, honest and thoughtful work needs to be done in Nevada, please call on people like us. Don't waste your time on the folks who prefer to sit on the sidelines and gripe their way through life.

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