Another opportunity

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

As the Nevada Legislature prepares for a special session beginning Monday to address the state’s budget crisis, think of how much worse our fiscal affairs would be today had it not been for the record $836 million state tax increase in 2003.

Instead of simply asking state employees, higher ed workers and schoolteachers to forgo well-earned 4 percent pay raises they were scheduled to receive, we would likely be asking them to endure pay cuts. Instead of struggling to maintain the bare-bones safety net we provide for senior citizens and residents with mental health problems or physical disabilities, we would likely be eliminating many of those services.

Lawmakers could have done even

more in 2003. They could have passed a gross receipts business tax to help capture revenue from out-of-state conglomerates that have raked in big bucks. Had a gross receipts tax been enacted, chances are we would not be facing a budget shortfall projected to exceed $1 billion by the middle of next year. We may still have had a revenue shortfall, but certainly not one as large. In hindsight, the 2003 legislative session was a missed opportunity to fix a tax system badly in need of an alignment.

Gov. Jim Gibbons has a golden opportunity to display some bold and progressive leadership for the first time since taking office. Instead of folding his arms and saying no to any new or revised taxes, he should prod lawmakers to use the special session as a platform for meaningful tax reform that would lessen the need for deep budget cuts in the future. If the state just plods along and does nothing, we will find ourselves in the same position again and again. By sticking to his guns, Gibbons is showing he does not care about the consequences of his stubborn refusal to seek flexible solutions to Nevada’s budget problems. It is high time Gibbons responded with compassion and common sense and not with the inaction that, if left unabated, is bound to hurt Nevadans and generations to come.