• About Us
  • Activity
  • Advertising
  • Books
  • Business
  • Contact
  • Dashboard
  • EB5
  • Entertainment
  • feedback
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Government
  • Home
  • Home 20723
  • Interviews
  • Login
  • Members
  • Meme generator
  • National
  • Nevada
  • Nevada News and Views
  • Newsmax
  • NN&V Ads
  • Opinion
  • Pick a New Password
  • Politics
  • Polls
  • Privacy Policy
  • Profile
  • Recent comments by me
  • Recent comments on my posts
  • Register
  • Submit post
  • Subscribe
  • Subscription Confirmation
  • Survey
  • Survey
  • Terms of Service
  • Today’s Top 10
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Welcome!
  • Yop Poll Archive
Nevada News and Views
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • More
    • Opinion
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Pinterest

  • RSS

Opinion

IFC Hiding Behind Unelected Stakeholders

IFC Hiding Behind Unelected Stakeholders
Chuck Muth
September 28, 2009

At its October meeting, the Interim Finance Committee’s “Subcommittee to Conduct a Review of Nevada’s Revenue Structure” is planning to appoint a panel of 15 individuals to a newly created “Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group.”

The NVSG’s job, we are told, will be to develop a long-term strategic plan for the next five, 10 and 20 years, identifying the quality-of-life goals that “we, as Nevadans, would like to see [accomplished] in our state,” says Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford.

The 15 individuals selected to the NVSG are to be chosen from each of the five broad areas of state spending: Commerce & Industry, Education, Health and Human Services, Public Safety and Infrastructure.

That these “stakeholders” would all be drawn explicitly from economic sectors that are the major consumers of tax dollars should immediately be of concern to taxpayers. After all, the charge to NVSG members will essentially be to draw up a shopping list they’d like to see the public fund over the next 20 years. It could mean an open-ended check draft written by special interests on average Nevadans’ earnings at a time when the latter are already seeing their wealth and income decline.

At least this realization has not been completely lost on all Interim Finance Committee members. Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio has questioned the potential makeup of the NVSG, saying, “The stakeholder group cannot be lopsided. It has to be balanced. It cannot be tilted in favor of those who receive taxes, rather than those who pay the taxes.”

An ensuing exchange between Senator Horsford and Assemblyman James Settlemeyer revealed that Horsford hopes to allay such concerns by allowing — within the Commerce & Industry category — consideration of individuals interested in promoting “economic development.” It’s unclear whether “economic development,” to Horsford, refers to true market-driven economic growth or to mere corporate welfare handouts for politically favored firms. Regardless, this narrow inclusion of a few potential private-sector representatives does little to offset the imbalance between taxpayer and tax recipient that will exist on the NVSG.

Instead, the NVSG is likely to be a coalition of public employee unions and other rent-seeking special interests eager to craft a deal that makes all of them happy — at the taxpayers’ expense, of course. Those who would be required to finance the grandiose schemes that result from these “stakeholder processes” are rarely considered relevant “stakeholders” themselves.

Odds are that the NVSG will be a group of 15 unelected political-class elitists happy to force their personal will on all Nevadans. If state history is any guide, the radical and sweeping agenda that is likely to come out of the NVSG will then be presented to the full body of the legislature as having achieved “broad consensus among the relevant stakeholders.” Even beyond Nevada, this is a method often employed in legislatures across the country. It’s a means of pushing through far-reaching schemes to increase the size of government, while at the same time largely insulating legislators from public accountability for those policies. After all, legislators will disingenuously claim, the policy proposals enjoyed broad consensus among the relevant “stakeholders.”

It is shameful that leaders of the Nevada Legislature would hide behind a group of unelected flunkies appointed to develop policy on their behalf. The state constitution does not call for public policymaking to take place in a tax-consumer “stakeholder” process — it calls for a legislative process. Consulting with constituents who could potentially be affected by particular legislation is a giant step away from convening a group of special-interest representatives to develop the priorities themselves.

If elected representatives in Carson City are unwilling to perform their task as legislators and to be held accountable for their actions, they should never have run for office. By appointing unelected individuals to legislate on their behalf, they would undermine the most basic principle of democratic accountability.

Of course, this appears to be the point. Legislators are looking to push through an agenda they know will be unpopular. Hence, they are posturing — attempting to distance themselves, as far away from the stink as possible.

Geoffrey Lawrence is a fiscal policy analyst at the Nevada Policy Research Institute.
.

Prev postNext post

Related Items
Opinion
September 28, 2009
Chuck Muth

Related Items

More in Opinion

Amodei Statement on Debt Ceiling Bill

Chuck MuthJune 1, 2023
Read More

Tark: Trans “Rights” … and Wrongs

Chuck MuthMay 26, 2023
Read More

Stone: The Truth About AB 250: Will Patients Really Benefit?

NN&V StaffMay 26, 2023
Read More

“Ungrateful Miscreants”: Miller, Segerblom Insult Local Small Business Owners

NN&V StaffMay 24, 2023
Read More

Quarter-Million Dollar Ad Campaign Targets Nevada Legislators for Trapping Hispanic Families in Unsafe Schools

NN&V StaffMay 22, 2023
Read More

Nevada News & Views: May 20, 2023

NN&V StaffMay 20, 2023
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Subscribe Free By Email

Looking for the best in breaking news and conservative views? Let Chuck do all the work for you! Subscribe to his FREE "Muth's Truths" e-newsletter.

* indicates required
Nevada News and Views
Nevada News & Views is an educational project of Citizen Outreach Foundation, a non-partisan IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization. It is not associated or affiliated with any political party or group. Nevada News & Views is accessible by the public at no cost. It funds its operations through tax-deductible contributions from donors and supporters and does not accept government money or grants.

TAGS

Featured Article Muths truth

Copyright © 2023 Citizen Outreach | Maintained by VirtualAlly

Conservative Eyes Moving Up to Senate
Heck Mulls Jump into CD 3 Race