Nevada Budget Crisis Gets Worse

From the LVRJ: The Nevada Resort Association announced Thursday night that the gaming industry won't agree to a Democratic plan to obtain $32 million more a year from casinos to help balance the state budget.
Lawmakers have been trying for days to negotiate a deal with the industry, which lost $6.7 billion in fiscal year 2009....The Nevada Resort Association announced tonight that it could not reach consensus among its statewide membership to support a legislative proposal to increase $32.5 million in fees that the gaming industry pays annually to the State of Nevada," the group said in a statement.
The association cited the $6.7 billion loss, a record decline in casino revenues, and nearly 34,500 layoffs in the past year.
The trade association represents most major casinos in Nevada.
Well, this makes sense. The casino industry has laid off nearly 35,000 people in the past year, and my guess more. If the casino's are made to pay more taxes, they will lay off more people.
The Democrats just don't understand this concept. They are lucky the mining industry is willing to pay a little more, but instead of cutting budgets like most households in Nevada have done this year, they think industry will just roll over and accept more taxes. The Democrats just don't get it.
As a teacher, I see the fat in the budget. I teach severely mentally disabled students. While all students in Nevada have to take the proficiency exams, our students take an alternative test.
So, at the IEP meeting, the team decides if the student needs to take the proficiency exam or the alternative exam. With my students, it's a no brainer. So, I give the exam. Then the bureaucrats in the special education review the CD I made. Then it goes to the State and it gets viewed by 2 more bureaucrats. Even students with very severe disabilities- those who cannot talk, write and have a mental age of 3 months, have to go through the same process.
So, the State employs several people to decide if a student is proficient in a subject, even though common sense would dictate that they are not. That is called fat in the budget.
So, yes, there is fat in the education budget, as there are in state and local budgets. Yes, that means people will lose their job in education because their job is really not needed. Yes, that sucks, but they knew when they got the job outside of the classroom, they took the risk of having their job eliminated. Besides, they will just bump another person out of a classroom job, so they won't be affected. And if the district plays it cards right with the union, no one will be laid off. They need to offer furlough days, maybe 6 days a school year and that will go a long way to solve the budget crisis in CCSD.
But we will see. There is still no concrete plan put forth by the Democrats, especially since they are not going to listen to the governor. They will do some cutting and taxing, but it is still small potatoes, considering how much money they have to come up with.
But no matter what happens, it is still better than my former state, Wisconsin, where they just don't give a damn about budget deficits. In Wisconsin, they play games and more games and they go deeper into debt and they will leave the problem for the next governor, Scott Walker.
But the Democrats don't know the meaning of fat in the budget. They just believe in tax people and the tax fairy.