View from the fray

When times are rough, you gotta tighten your belt. You’ve got to rein in those wild government excesses. That’s why schools in Washoe County are going without, among many other things, new books and buses. That’s why the state of Nevada is, among many other things, temporarily cutting out its training academy for new prison guards.

It’s all right, the state prisons director tells the Associated Press in a Tuesday news report; the new guards still get classroom and on-the-job training.

The state needs to take measures to save money. It faces a $115 million shortfall by the end of this fiscal year. A $129 million shortage is forecast for the next fiscal year, which starts in July.

“Revenue has not met projections and the state is paying higher costs in social welfare programs, especially since Sept. 11,” writes AP reporter Brendan Riley. And Gov. Guinn says he doesn’t want the state to cut existing health care programs or, gasp, education.

The story about the prison training program cuts ran in the Reno Gazette-Journal placed strategically by some savvy copy editor above a story headlined: “Nevada’s tax burden on wealthy is among lowest in nation.” Turns out that Nevada ranks third in a national wealth-friendliness ranking system devised by Bloomberg Personal Finance, getting an A+ for wealthy families and an A- for retirees.

Nevada. Just say cheap buffets and no state income tax. No wonder everyone and his uncle from the Bay Area are shopping for homes in Caughlin Ranch.

So, OK, we need to change Nevada’s tax structure. That’s a given. But then consider the Reno City Council’s recent spending frenzy at a time when, as RGJ biz whiz John Stearns reports, hotels experienced a 3.4 percent decline in paid room nights in February. (Motel rooms report a 10.8 percent gain, but that’s hardly a good indicator of economic activity—could just be lots of former Flamingo Hilton employees who couldn’t make the house payment after being soaked by Sierra Pacific for power.)

Nonetheless, it’s a record year for city spending in Reno. In the shopping cart so far: bonds for a downtown events center, $120 million; bonds for a depressed railway (approved Tuesday), $115 million; federal loan for a depressed railway, more than $50 million. Sure, it takes money to make money. A stupendous attraction like the downtown ditch ought to attract huge crowds. Upon completion of the four-year project, the city could sell trench-viewing tickets for a small fee or charge a toll to drive under the Arch.

Compared with these huge and historic sums, what’s an extra $5.5 million to buy the Cal-Neva office building to turn into a new City Hall? What’s $16 million for a minor-league baseball stadium and $60 million to beef up the arts and build an indoor swimming pool for Reno’s competitive swim teams? The latter two items would go before city voters in November, just a couple of the many tax proposals on the ballot. A proposed $200 million state bond sale would pay for open space, parks and trails.

Confusion sets in. Are we broke, or aren’t we? One way or the other, it looks like a good time to figure out what our real priorities are in Reno, Sparks, Washoe County and the state of Nevada.