I’ve obtained a full copy of the text of Gov. Jim Gibbons‘s speech, set for 6 p.m. tonight. (You can watch that speech on 8 News Now, followed by analysis from yours truly afterwards!) Here’s a little preview of what the governor intends to say, in a passage about the effect the proposed budget cuts will have on Nevada:
“And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth or hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together: and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains. And said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us, and hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?’”
Only kidding. That’s actually a passage from Revelation, depicting a slightly less calamitous scenario at the end of days. That St. John was such a drama queen.
But seriously folks: We’re talking $900 million here, not exactly chump change in a budget that’s already been cut and into which federal stimulus/rescue/bailout funds are not available in mass quantities to fill. It’s not going to be pretty, especially for prison guards (some who may be laid off if a Carson City prison is closed), the mentally ill (for whom services will be cut); students (from kindergarten through college, budgets will be slashed); or public employees (who, in the worst-case scenario, may temporarily lose their collective bargaining rights as government managers make cuts, and in the best-case scenario face pay cuts and layoffs).
And when you realize that this is all being done just to get us to the end of June 2011, by which time the Legislature will be confronting an even bigger deficit (hello, $3 billion!), well, it brings to mind biblical disaster.
The fine folks over at Progress Now Nevada have an alternative: They’re circulating a Save Our State petition, which asks legislators to make small cuts coupled with “new revenue” (that means taxes) including eliminating the mining industry’s statutory deductions and creating a one-half percent tax on businesses. Sadly, we doubt more than five Nevada lawmakers would sign such a petition, given that the pending elections have made them as tax-averse as Gibbons himself.
Tags: Jim Gibbons
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