Does anyone else feel like we've all fallen down the rabbit hole?
For five days, state agency heads marched before the combined Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees, presenting an overview of Gov. Jim Gibbons' drastically reduced budget for the coming biennium.
By the end of the of the session, it was clear that ours is a state that's running out of options. Lawmakers heard dire accounts of closing mental health clinics, tripling tuition at state universities, and health insurance too expensive for state retirees.
Last week, Sen. Bob Coffin even said he'd be open to hearing proposals to generate revenue by allowing brothels in urban counties.
Someone pass the hookah, please; we need a hit.
On Wednesday, the Department of Transportation announced it would study a tax based on vehicle weight and usage. The theory is that heavier vehicles and those that drive more miles inflict more expensive damage on roadways.
Using a sensor in the vehicles to identify them at the pump, those drivers would be taxed more for gas, taxes that in turn would go to repair the roads. Oregon, NDOT Director Susan Martinovich said, also is looking at testing such a system.
There are two things to know about Nevada. One, this is not Oregon, in any way, shape or form. And, two, you don't mess with Nevadans' trucks.
But NDOT already has slashed expenses and stretched resources. It is now in the position to look for creative solutions to falling revenues. Someone, somewhere, has to pay for maintaining our highways. But our advice is, skip the expense of the study, NDOT. Taxing trucks and long-
distance drivers will never fly in the Battle Born state, any more than allowing cathouses in downtown Carson City.
Yet, one has to feel for those whose job it is to hammer down their budgets, like cramming so many square pegs into round holes. They are trying hard to come up with workable solutions that at least minimize the pain " there's no reasonable expectation of eliminating altogether the hurt of living on such diminished means. They should be commended. No one, not the governor, nor the legislators, nor the agency staffs, likes to be in the situation we are in today. There are no villains; just people grasping for solutions.
In just four days, the 2009 Legislature will convene, facing challenges that could make the contentious 2003 session look like a game of croquet on the lawn. It's important for all of us to keep this in mind: Everyone there wants what's best for Nevada. Do not let differences of opinion or ideology cloud that fact. Do not degenerate into a partisan battleground.
Civility and compromise must rule the day.