• About Us
  • Activity
  • Advertising
  • Books
  • Business
  • Contact
  • Dashboard
  • EB5
  • Entertainment
  • feedback
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Government
  • Home
  • 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
  • Advertising
  • Contact
  • More
    • Nevada
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Travel
    • News
    • Sports
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Pinterest

  • RSS

Government

How to Balance Nevada’s Budget without Cutting a Single Program

How to Balance Nevada’s Budget without Cutting a Single Program
N&V Staff
December 30, 2010

(Chuck Muth) – On one hand, everyone seems to agree that there is about a $1 billion government overspending deficit in Nevada’s general fund budget. On the other hand, some peg the overspending deficit at $3 billion.

But that $3 billion figure is based on Nevada’s super-fund budget, which includes transportation and other items not included in the general fund, as well as local government spending. That brings total government spending in Nevada to around $20 billion.

So here’s the reality. If you’re comparing apples to apples, then the $1 billion figure represents about an 18 percent overspending deficit in the general fund budget. If you want to use the $3 billion figure for total government spending, then you’re looking at about…an 18 percent overspending deficit. Not 42 percent as some organization comparing apples to oranges suggested a couple weeks ago.

Still, how can you close our overspending deficit without eliminating a single existing government service (that is, if you wanted to; I don’t)?

Simple. Most of the state’s spending is on salaries for government workers. You have to reduce those salaries for the same reason people rob banks: That’s where the money is. And you start right off the bat by rescinding that 4 percent cost-of-living pay hike state workers never should have gotten in the first place back in 2008 when we were right smack dab in the middle of this full-blown recession.

But Chuck, I hear some say, if we lower the pay of government workers, we’ll lose them; they’ll quit?

Really?

Have you seen what the job market is like out here in the real world lately? Does anyone really think government workers, most with little to no real world work experience, are going to voluntarily leave their cushy government jobs – including benefits – to take the risk of finding work in the private sector where, in Nevada, the effective unemployment rate is around 20 percent?

And with unemployment at around 20 percent, does anyone really think it would be hard to replace any government workers who quit rather than take the necessary pay cut? Get real. I mean, how many of those Clark County firefighters hauling in $200,000 or more a year are going to find $180,000-a-year jobs in the private sector if their pay is cut 10 percent?

None.

But if any of them do, how many people do you think would stand in line to submit an application to fill that $180,000 a year firefighter position? (How long is the Strip again?)

So that’s where you start: government employee payroll reductions. That’s how you could close the state’s overspending budget gap without eliminating any of the existing government programs, departments and services.

Which is not to say there aren’t also plenty of non-essential programs, departments, government services and employees who shouldn’t be axed. There are.

So not only can we balance the budget without eliminating any essential government services, programs or personnel, we could probably operate at a surplus if we cut some more fat by eliminating NON-essential government programs, departments, services and personnel in addition to the salary reductions.

Wahoo, let the tax cuts begin!

Prev postNext post

Related Items
Government
December 30, 2010
N&V Staff

Related Items

More in Government

Graves: Don’t Allow Subsidized, Foreign Sugarcane to Enter U.S. Markets

N&V StaffNovember 1, 2022
Read More

Some Cheerful News on Flat Rate Taxes

N&V StaffOctober 21, 2022
Read More

Conservatives Should Not Surrender on Sugar

N&V StaffOctober 7, 2022
Read More

Running On Empty

N&V StaffOctober 6, 2022
Read More

Help a Sheriff Fire a Corrupt Governor?

N&V StaffOctober 4, 2022
Read More

CCSD – MathLITE and Exacerbating the Teacher Shortage

N&V StaffSeptember 29, 2022
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 Nevada Politics business Muth's Truths government Opinion Government Muth’s Truths Obama Ron Knecht News Donald Trump GOP Republicans

Copyright © 2022 Citizen Outreach | Maintained by VirtualAlly

No new taxes, says Governor … Andrew Cuomo
The Ultimate Solution to Nevada’s Budget Woes