The Governor of Nevada and the representatives we elected are not listening to the people of Nevada. Just a few months ago we the voters rejected two proposed tax increases, the Margin tax on business and the Increase in mining tax. Yet some of our elected officials must not have been paying attention election night because the legislators and the Governor are proposing to put the margin tax into effect anyway.

The people spoke loud and clear; limited government, fiscal responsibility and no new taxes. However, the Governor has still proposed raising taxes on businesses. What a dumb thing to do. When the economy is struggling you throw a life line not an anchor.

Our new state Treasurer Dan Schwartz, attempted to present several alternative revenue ideas to the Senate Finance Committee. Did the committee members even listen; no they shouted him down and disregarded his alternative ideas. When you don’t listen to your state Treasurer you shouldn’t be in any office. His ideas were to not cut spending but to bring it in line with population increases and income. But some say even maintaining spending at present levels adjusted for population increases is a cut in spending. So let’s get this right, unless you continue to increase funding to failing programs you are somehow cutting programs?

Business has some reasonable ideas which our Treasurer suggested to the state legislators and they insult him and dismiss his ideas. They are the ones who should be dismissed. Before elections they all are against higher taxes but the first thing they do is figure out how to raise more money with taxes that the voters rejected.

The school system is the biggest mess so what does the Governor want to do, throw more money at it. Schools (k-12) have received a 23% increase over the rate of inflation and population growth in the last 10 years. What should we expect if we keep doing the same thing, the same negative results, so why would we give them more? The truth is all programs want more and then even more regardless of their effectiveness. The facts are taxes have been increased significantly in every single legislative session in the last decade.

The Treasurer recognizes that extra money has been spent on schools but they haven’t improved yet they want more. Far from asking for spending cuts, the Treasurer proposes to increased spending at a rate that reflects population and inflation but not huge increase for grandiose programs. He proposed that criteria be used to evaluate programs and schools to insure concrete results which are not based on school administrators and their consultants’ promises. He called on the legislature to prioritize needs, and increase spending for programs that are cost effective and that work. Isn’t that unique?

The tax and spending increases proposed in the Governor’s budget have a negative effect on our state’s economy. All anyone has to do is look at the success Texas is having recruiting businesses Even current business relocates to states that have low tax rates. Nevada needs businesses to move here not to leave.

We elected representatives that promised low taxes and that is what we should be getting. We want representatives to find innovative ways to improve Nevada without raising taxes. Can it be done, maybe they should listen to the state Treasurer who had lots of good ideas, it’s not hard but it’s going to make unions unhappy and they are the one giving the money for reelection.

It’s time to look for new and innovative ways to solve our problems but clearly throwing more money doesn’t work. We must encourage business to come to Nevada and stay in Nevada. We must use clear and concise measuring tools to insure results in state programs.

100 years ago, none of these proposed taxes existed, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. In fact most of the taxes we have today didn’t exist. We also had no national debt and the largest middle class in the world, what happen? Do you think taxes, taxes and more taxes?