Can't beat 'em

THE STATE OF NEVADA is going to stop building new roads, throw mentally ill patients out to roam existing ones, curtail medical care for low-income people and take several other steps guaranteed to most afflict the least advantaged among us while at the same time deepening the local economy's horrifying downward spiral of misery and despair. Perhaps you've seen the headlines.

There are several reasons this is happening, but a main one is that Nevada's governor, the nation's worst, can do whatever he wants because no one in either the political or business community will stand up to him in an organized, meaningful way.

To show that I'm "in touch with the mainstream," I, too, will hereby stop defending government as the means by which a moral society upholds the social contract. Enough already with calling for Nevada's elected officials to at least begin the long slow road to rallying support for establishing taxes in a state where most businesses and industries don't pay any.

Having accepted the hard truth that there will be no organized political resistance to the nation's worst governor anytime soon, I will instead suggest a few things that should no longer receive any money whatsoever from the state general fund. (In parentheses are the projected annual savings based on the general fund appropriations in the current fiscal year.)

* The Lieutenant Governor ($696,000). A ludicrous office with barely any responsibility and even less of a point. Just change the line of succession so that the secretary of state is next in line if the governor gets whacked by, oh, a bus, a falling piano, an estranged wife or a jealous husband.

* Office of Homeland Security ($452,000). To even suggest that this office can protect Nevadans from evildoers for what it costs to buy a couple of RVs is an insult and yet another example of how, when Republican politicians invoke the glorious "War on Terror," they're just exploiting death and tragic human suffering for cheap -- and I mean cheap -- political gain.

* Office of the Military ($4.5 million). Doesn't the federal government already have a military? And in the event that Nevada does need a military someday, say, to repel an invasion from Idaho, can't we exercise our cherished Second Amendment rights and muster a militia?

* Commission on Economic Development ($6.6 million). Nevada's approach to economic development and diversification is now and always has consisted of people like Nevada Development Authority Executive Flim-Flam Man Somer Hollingsworth jumping up and down and screaming, "We don't have an income tax!" over and over. Development and diversification programs in Nevada are a farce. Spending $6.6 million on them is a crime.

Bonus related item: All state tax incentives for new and expanding businesses should be repealed. The state can't afford it, and tax breaks tend to attract low-skill, low-pay jobs that disappear when the employers rush to the next town or state willing to whore out with even more generous government handouts.

* Gaming Control Board ($34 million) and Gaming Commission ($427,000). Gambling, er, gaming industry executives in Nevada never tire of boasting that they are subject to the most rigorous and comprehensive regulatory apparatus the world has ever known. If they're so proud of it, they won't mind paying it for it with additional fees dedicated for that purpose, thus freeing up $34.4 million in general fund tax revenue for other, better things.

* Office of Business and Industry ($10.2 million); Office of Agriculture ($4.1 million), Department of Conservation and Natural Resources ($33.4 million). As with the gaming-regulatory apparatus, these departments should not be funded by tax dollars through the state's general fund. Bankers, mortgage lenders and the like should pay extra fees to fund the business office. Welfare cowboys and their ilk should pay extra or increased fees to fund agriculture. And the transnational mining conglomerates and other resource-based industries should pay fees to fund not just the environmental regulatory role of conservation, but also to maintain the state parks and operate the forestry and other programs in the department. (Unlike the rest of the state and the vast majority of the people in it, the mining industry is doing great financially right now. Paying for state parks and stuff through an expansive fee system would allow the companies to compensate for paying no corporate income taxes and only a pitifully low, loophole-ravaged state production tax.)

* Commission on Ethics ($266,000). Unless and until Nevada voters provide some evidence that they care about a politician's ethics, we can do without a commission on the subject, no matter how toothless and underfunded it is.

* Governor's Mansion ($425,000). The Review-Journal's John L. Smith says rent it. I say sell it. Everybody else has to pay for their own housing out of their salaries. Why not governors? Besides, if the governor is from the north, chances are that person will already have a house up yonder. And if the governor is from the south, that person isn't going to want to be in stupid Carson City and can instead govern from Las Vegas. The current governor has already proved that it doesn't matter where the governor lives, no matter what the law says.

* Nuclear Waste Project Office ($2.1 million). The nuclear power industry, historically blessed with more government subsidies than sense, will continue throwing money around at local consultants on the pretense that Yucca Mountain will be a waste dump someday. But it won't. And just because the industry is going to keep wasting money on a lost cause is no reason the state should continue wasting it on a won one.

All of that only totals $97 million, which is a far cry from the half-billion that Republicans are salivating about ripping from the budget for each of the next two fiscal years. But hey, it's only a quick first look. Why, once into the nitty-gritty of budget details, even more savings will doubtless show up, from the automobile stipend for the nation's creepiest governor to eliminating the Capitol Police force to halting state investigations of drug "crimes," etc.

And let's not forget education. That budget is huge, and there is plenty to cut, both at the K-12 level and in higher ed. How about starting with the millions spent on sports?

Hugh Jackson is a longtime local journalist, former senior editor of CityLife and the proprietor of the Las Vegas Gleaner (www.lasvegasgleaner.com), where he blogs.