Regardless of the Special Session Outcome, Nevada’s Problems Are Not Solved

(Mark Noonan) – There’s this, that and the other thing being said as I write this. Seems they’ve got a deal. This will be taxed, that won’t be taxed. A bit of spending trimmed here, a bit of financial hocus-pocus there. In the end, it doesn’t matter.

The legislature gathered because of the most important thing a career, machine politician cares about was at stake: the legal ability of the State of Nevada to keep cutting the checks. Goodness, can you imagine what would happen if even for a moment all the special interests built into the budget didn’t get paid? It’s too horrible to contemplate.

For career politicians, at any rate.

Whenever we get in to a jam like this, I’m always reminded of a quote from Shakespeare: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves”.

We can complain about the pinheads in Carson City all we want, but we put them there. We, the people of the great State of Nevada, got the government we deserve. And now we’re getting it good and hard.

Of our 21 State Senators, 16 have been in office – either in the Assembly or the Senate without a break – at least since the 1990’s; five since at least the 80’s, and one straight on through since Richard Nixon was President.

Only two have been there less than two years and can thus be considered not responsible for the mess we’re in. The rest of them are guilty, guilty, guilty of the gross mismanagement that brought us to this sorry state.

And they are the people to fix it?

Here is what we’ve got: the Legislature will adjourn with a supposed deal all set to take care of our budget shortfall. This is the same Legislature that “solved” the problem back in 2009.

Roll that around your mind for a moment and then ask yourself: is it at all likely they’ve really solved the problem? Or will they now rely upon us to buy their nonsense and re-elect them, only to have them be shocked – shocked! – that there’s a whole, new budget hole to be filled in January? And, hey, we don’t want to jack up tax rates, but we must do the people’s business…

You know it will be like that. You know they’ve done nothing but paper over the cracks.

The choice now lies with us. We can supinely accept the career, machine politicians and their bogus solutions designed to preserve their power. Or, we can throw the bums out and try again with politicians who aren’t trying to build a career, but serve the people.