Something You'll Never See In California

At the risk of this blog becoming an advertisement for the state of Nevada, I'm here to alert you to an astonishing development east of the border.

This morning, I received an email indicating that Washoe County -- where Reno and the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe are located -- has decided to lower its assessed property valuations by 25 percent across the board. So, without any action on the part of homeowners, property taxes will automatically be reduced 25 percent this year.

Yes, I realize that such a thing wouldn't work in California because of Proposition 13. And, I know a homeowner in California can petition to have their house reappraised. But that's not the point.

The point is that there actually are places in this country where sufficient fiscal discipline has been exercised to permit reasonable reductions in taxes to compensate for the poor economy.

An across-the-board tax cut does just this. And, you can bet that Nevada will balance that with reasonable spending reductions to keep their budget balanced.

So, what will we do with the $1,000 in property taxes we won't have to pay in Nevada this year? Maybe we can put it toward hiring a private security patrol to compensate for Oakland's refusal to adequately police our neighborhood.

But, more realistically, we'll earmark it to pay for the next ridiculous tax increase we can expect from Mayor Dullums. It'll be sad to see Nevada's money wasted on more make-work programs for "violence reduction."

In Nevada, Government Actually Sometimes Says 'No'

I'm sure most EBC readers don't spend much time reading about Nevada politics. But if you did, you'd know that, like California, Nevada faces a budget crunch, and its legislature held a special session last weekend to resolve things.

California could learn a lot from the way Nevada handles these things. In short, they cut. A lot. And they balanced their budget.



I was pretty shocked this past weekend as I read the Nevada Appeal articles about the special session. From the peace and quiet of my Nevada HQ, I tried to imagine how such a situation would play out in Sacramento.

First, there's just absolutely no way the Democrats in the California legislature would even consider significant spending cuts without first lining up hundreds of demonstrators.

California is childish in this way. Our representatives repeatedly pick the most important and valuable public services, and as soon as any cuts need to be made, they tell us that those are the ones that will be cut. Then they line up teachers, cops and whoever else they can find to demagogue the issue still further.

Then, the key moment comes when folks like Don Perata trot out their demands to raise taxes. This suggestion always strikes me as hilarious in light of the fact that California already is number 6 nationwide  in per-household government spending. Nevada is number 43.

Oh, and did I mention that Nevada has no income tax? Must be nice. Move to Nevada, get a 10 percent pay raise.

One thing that few Californians realize is that we may actually be at the end of a period of tax rationality.

Democrats are currently just a few votes shy of the two-thirds majority they need in both houses of the legislature to pass a budget without any input from Republicans. After the 2010 census, they will re-draw the legislative boundaries, with predictable results.

I think it's a reasonable likelihood that the Democrats will eventually get their two-thirds majority, and then I would expect to see state income tax rates in excess of 15 percent. I see absolutely nothing in the state's liberal agenda that stands in the way of such an eventuality.

It's sad to see things go this way. This is especially true in light of our neighbors in Nevada.

It's not as if Nevada is some sort of far-right-wing backwater. Far from it, actually: Democrats are the majority in the Nevada state assembly. No, the difference is that Nevada actually has political give-and-take. This is something that's increasingly lacking in California.

One-party government is a disaster. Even Leftists should be able to understand this point, considering the federal government's problems under monolithic Republican rule.

California needs more conservatism to make it more like Nevada. Only then may California be saved from its own shortsightedness.