From Muth’s Truths:

By: Chuck Muth

The un-COLA Special Session

by Chuck Muth
June 15, 2008

In order to trim an additional $60 million from current government spending, all manner of governmental special interests are clamoring for exemptions. Don’t cut education. Don’t cut social services. Don’t cut public safety. Don’t cut transportation. And whatever you do, don’t cut government worker pay raises.

OK, let’s just concede for argument’s sake that there isn’t a dime in any of those areas to spare – a ridiculous assumption, to be sure. But let’s play along. Can we come up with $60 million of government spending cuts from non-essential government services, programs or departments which aren’t giving taxpayers much bang for the buck? Let’s give it a shot using information gleaned from the official Nevada Legislative Appropriations Report for the 2007-09 biennium.

Here’s a good one. We already spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make K-12 education available to every citizen of Nevada (and quite a few non-citizens as well; but that’s a different argument for a different day). Now, if someone doesn’t take advantage of those 13 years of free education and fails to get a high school diploma, whose fault is that? Should taxpayers be on the hook for an additional $20 million-plus per year for “adult high school diploma programs for the general public and for the state’s prison inmates”? I don’t think so.

CUT! There’s $40 million-plus right off the bat.

How about the $7 million-plus per year program of paying newly-hired teachers “signing bonuses?” Signing bonuses? This isn’t the NBA, the NFL or MLB. I’m betting not one of those teachers can slam-dunk a basketball over Kobe or hit a Roger Clemens fastball.

CUT! There’s another $15 million.

One of my favorites: The Department of Cultural Affairs. We’re talking about a savings of some $20 million per year alone just by x-ing out this non-essential department completely. Of course, that means taxpayers wouldn’t be spending $120,000 to restore an antique railroad car or a half million dollars to buy some old slot machines, but I’m willing to make that sacrifice.

CUT! There’s another $40 million-plus.

The anti-Yucca Mountain nuclear waste office hasn’t accomplished much of anything other than slowing down the process a bit. The repository is still on track and has entered the final approval stage before construction begins. In other words, the office is not only non-essential (fighting Yucca, after all, is the job of our members of Congress), but totally ineffective. This office gets more money than the state Controller’s office and is nothing more than a rest home for under-qualified high-priced bureaucrats.

CUT! There’s $10 million.

How about $2.5 million a year to publish “Nevada Magazine”? Exactly how is that an essential expense for taxpayers, especially during these tough budgetary times?

CUT! Another $5 million saved.

Now, I don’t have a calculator handy, but I’m pretty sure that if you add those few items up we’re looking at way more than $60 million in savings. So the idea that we can’t trim $60 million without hurting the poor, the infirm, the elderly or, God forbid, “the children” is ludicrous. Hand me that meat cleaver.

Now let’s briefly address the idea being floated to temporarily delay a scheduled 4 percent cost-of-living (COLA) pay increase for government workers in order to save $60 to $100 million. Here’s the thing: Delaying the COLA would be quick and simple despite the howls of protest which would inevitably come from those government workers. And knowing how much I viscerally dislike government, you’d think I’d be in favor of delaying the COLA’s, as well.

Not.

Delaying the COLA’s is a gimmick. It’s smoke-and-mirrors. It’s just another scheme to kick the government-thinning can down the road yet again.

Not every government worker is non-essential. Not every government worker is a water-cooler slacker. And not every government worker treats the taxpaying public like the “soup Nazi” on the old Jerry Seinfeld show. The fact remains, there ARE legitimate functions of government and we need conscientious, talented workers to make the government trains run efficiently and on time.

You can’t blame the government worker who is hired to do a job which is non-essential or performs a “service” the government shouldn’t be providing in the first place. For example, why is the government providing taxpayer-funded roadside automobile services when we have private companies and AAA already providing that exact same thing?

If we’re ever going to get government pared down to its leanest, most basic level; where it’s only providing legitimate government services – such as fire, police, courts and road construction (NOT education, but that’s another topic for another day) – then it’s time to start laying off some government employees rather than delaying the 4 percent pay raises the Legislature, probably foolishly, promised government workers in the 2007 session.

In the private sector during tough economic times, you rarely penalize the essential, productive workers just to save the jobs of non-essential and non-productive workers. You first trim your workforce from the bottom up. You clear out the dead wood. Only THEN do take a look at more drastic measures if the revenue problem doesn’t improve.

Delaying the COLA’s is a cop-out. It once again – like tapping the rainy day fund and delaying capital construction projects (which, ironically, actually DO stimulate the economy by providing real jobs) or eliminating one-shot pork expenditures – puts off the VERY hard task of setting government spending priorities and slaying some sacred, non-essential cows.such as the Equal Rights Commission and the totally useless Ethics Commission.

Politically-speaking, if Gov. Gibbons and Republican legislators would completely get rid of some non-essential government programs or departments, they’d hear some screaming from a few government employees who would be forced to go out and get “real” jobs like the rest of us. But if he delays the COLA, he’s gonna hear screaming from ALL of the government employees, including those whose jobs are not only legitimate, but whose performance has been stellar and meritorious.

What to cut: the COLA.or the Nevada Arts Council? This one is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, the Legislature will be making this decision. Yikes! Talk about a no-brainer.