By: Chuck Muth
Muth’s Truths

  • Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki is hosting media conference call at 3:00 pm this afternoon to discuss his 2010 election plans. Jon Ralston, Nevada’s dean of political pundits, predicts Krolicki will announce he’s running for re-election and NOT joining the U.S. Senate race – which would be the smart move and safe bet. Stay tuned, Batfans.
  • OK, going to a Robert Allen “How to Buy Real Estate with Nothing Down” seminar isn’t a right; it’s an opportunity.
  • Going to a Dale Carnegie class on “How to Eliminate Your Fear of Public Speaking” isn’t a right; it’s an opportunity.
  • Going to a Fred Pryor “Creative Leadership for Managers, Supervisors, and Team Leaders” seminar isn’t a right; it’s an opportunity.
  • Going to a Charles Schwab “How to Invest in Stocks” seminar isn’t a right; it’s an opportunity.
  • Going to a Jenny Craig “How to Lose Those Ugly Pounds” program isn’t a right; it’s an opportunity.
  • And going to college isn’t a right either; it’s an opportunity.
  • A RJ headline today reads: “GOP targets state Senate: Republicans see chances, pursue recruiting drive.” Long story. Here’s the short of it: Republicans have one realistic shot to pick up one state Senate seat this year, the District 5 seat currently held by Democrat Sen. Joyce Woodhouse.
  • On the other hand, Republicans are in danger of losing as many as three incumbent seats; those held by Sens. Barbara Cegavske, Dennis Nolan and former Sen. Warren Hardy. So it’s not out of the question that Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio could return to the 2011 Legislature with the tax-happy Democrats enjoying a veto-proof 15-6 super-majority.
  • Worse for Sen. Raggio, half of that 6-person caucus could end up being conservative ex-Assemblymen Ty Cobb, James Settelmeyer and Don Gustavson who are vying to replace term-limited incumbent Republican senators. What a happy little caucus THAT would be.
  • The Las Vegas Sun editorialized yesterday that Gov. Gibbons “is taking this (economic) crisis as an ‘opportunity’ to gut government and the services people rely on.” Gee, I hope so. I mean after all, wasn’t it our illustrious president’s chief of stuff, Rahm Emanuel, who famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
  • And, hey, maybe because of these long overdue budget cuts more people will, you know, rely on themselves and each other instead of the government, just as our Founders intended. Indeed, as James Madison so famously said, “Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
  • “Unless reauthorized, the $800 million in the new taxes (passed by the Legislature last year) of which (Gov. Jim) Gibbons spoke (in his State of the State address) will expire in June 2011,” writes RJ columnist John L. Smith. “That begs the question: If that tax increase is so onerous, Governor, why not call for its repeal?”
  • Good point.
  • Let’s not wait for those taxes to sunset. Let’s repeal them in the special session. And then keep cutting government to make up the difference until, as our friend Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform so eloquently puts it, it’s shrunk down to a size where we can drown it in the bathtub.
  • And finally, on the governor’s upcoming school voucher proposal, Assemblyman John Oceguera tells the Nevada News Bureau that he’s “open to just about anything” but doesn’t think the Legislature should consider such an important educational policy reform during this economic crisis. Likewise, Sen. John Lee “said he too does not believe the special session is the time to take up such an issue, although new ideas are always worth a look.”
  • Interesting.
  • You see, Assemblyman Ed Goedhart introduced a school voucher bill in the regular session of last year’s Legislature….and it never even got a hearing, let alone a vote. So the reality is that unless they are FORCED to consider school vouchers in the upcoming special session, in which the governor and the governor alone sets the agenda, Democrat legislators will never even remotely consider extending true and universal school choice to Nevada’s parents.
  • That said, the governor’s plan might have a MAJOR flaw. According to reports (I haven’t seen the exact plan yet), the vouchers he’s proposing would be given directly to private schools, not to parents. If so, that would indeed pose a problem with the anti-Catholic “Blaine” amendment in Nevada’s Constitution. Let’s hope the governor’s staff realizes this and fixes it before submitting the proposal to the Legislature.