In an exclusive interview with CityLife editor Steve Sebelius released today, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford sounded like Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons in discussing the state’s budget and overspending problem. “There will be cuts,” Horsford admitted. “So we just have to decide what areas will be cut, which programs can be scaled back, and which things must be funded.”
Which is exactly what Gov. Gibbons has been saying for more than a year now.
The difference, of course, is that Gov. Gibbons has presented a written budget proposal outlining specific areas to cut, specific programs to scale back, and specific things which must be funded. Sen. Horsford, on the other hand, has offered no alternatives himself while criticizing the governor’s plan.
Later in the interview, Sen. Horsford had this to say:
“Um, now, that said, you’re gonna have to figure out a way to work with less ‘cause you’re not gonna have all of what you need. But there are some things that have to be a priority and we’re gonna fight like hell to make them a priority. Some other things, non-essential areas, things that maybe government shouldn’t be involved in right now, we’ve got to scale back, we’ve got to review it, we’ve got to possibly even eliminate some of those things in order to fund the things that matter most.”
If you didn’t know better, you’d swear that was Gov. Gibbons and not Sen. Horsford talking. After all, Gov. Gibbons has been saying all along that government needs to tighten its belt and do more with less; that we need to set spending priorities; that non-essential areas and things the government shouldn’t be doing in the first place need to be scaled back and maybe even eliminated in order to fund truly essential areas which matter most.
So the governor and the Senate Majority Leader are in complete agreement on what has to be done. The difference is in the details. The governor has responsibly put a detailed plan on the table. The Majority Leader, however, continues to bob, weave, spin and duck the specifics.
One final note, Sen. Horsford also said, “I believe that there has to be new revenue identified in a way that makes sense.” Of course, “new revenue” is Democrat code for “higher taxes.” But again, as with spending cuts, the Majority Leader refused to say exactly whose taxes should be increased and by how much.
So much for the Leader providing “leadership.”
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I have to applaud the Governor for keeping his word and not raising taxes. He sure is facing a lot of heat, especially from the education field, and that is too bad. It’s a shame that this situation has come to this, but he’s really trying to prevent it from getting worse. I’m one that thinks good teachers should be paid much much more than they are, but if the teachers are angry about the lack of pay, they need to talk to the school district. Had there not been so much bad spending and budgeting there, the budget cuts fromt the Governor wouldn’t have made as much of an impact, and there would still be money for teachers.
I love that Senator Horsford is full of complaints, but no answers. Pretty typical of liberals.
Denise K’s last blog post..Yucca Mountain
Horsford is an ambitious guy that probably sees himself as the new Bill Raggio. All he has to do is peal off two Republicans and a half dozen more will follow them. Then he’s the savior of the session.
We beat him by changing the argument. Was the Governor right..I think we’ve moved on.
My examples would be;
We’re not driving a steak through the heart of UNLV. We are challenging Rogers vision of UNLV’s future and calling for a return to it’s roots as a great urban college. UNLV’s budget needs to be inline with the publics view of it’s real mission. Does the public really want tax dollars going to develop a separate system like Nevada State?
The 6% pay cut for teachers was a bonehead move. There is a compelling argument though that across the board there is too much compensation inequality between the state and local government employees. Our local governments have shown they fear the public employee unions and have been very generous with our tax dollars. Our party needs to shine a bright light on this issue in a constructive manner.
There’s many areas where we need to update a shop worn message. We have fresh ideas and we look forward to using conservative ideas to deal with specific issues.
Do you truely want to save money? If so get the illegals out of our state! Take them from our schools, our health care system, our social security system, you get the idea. Once they are gone we will be amazed at how much money we can save!