In case you missed it…
2019 Legislative Session
From gun control to rent control, the Nevada legislature has been busy this week. Luckily, Nevada Policy is making it easy for taxpayers stay aware of everything going on in Carson City with our online Bill Tracker. It has been updated in real time throughout the week (view here), and every Friday a summary of developments will be posted right on our website (view here). Keep on top of what is going on at the legislature by bookmarking our Tracker — right now you can see the already-gathering attacks on your pocketbook! Click below to see what we are watching as of today!
Labor unions
Granting collective bargaining powers to Nevada state workers is not going to come cheap. (Read more) And yet, it looks as if it’s going to happen anyway in Nevada. The arguments most commonly used in support the concept is the false belief that state workers are underpaid. The real reason, however, is purely political. (Read Nevada Policy’s study on this issue here.) The truth is, state workers already earn far more than their private-sector counterparts. At 49 percent greater than the average private-sector worker, compensation for Nevada state workers actually ranked second highest nationwide! (Read more)
Education
One of the biggest problems facing public education is how the public-school establishment has insulated itself from accountability. Unfortunately, Carson City has a handful of “education reforms” that will do little to improve the culture of inept bureaucracy in public schools. Instead, it will do the opposite — making the education establishment even less accountable to parents and taxpayers. (Read more)
Individual freedom
How free is Nevada? When compared to the other 50 states, one would think Nevada would rank as pretty free, given our lack of income tax and general history of limited government. However, as it turns out, there is more to freedom than a low (or non-existent) income tax rate, and Nevada is certainly better on some issues than on others. Daniel J. Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, has decided to sift through the data to determine which state is the most “libertarian” state of them all. (Read more)
Cronyism
Amazon has decided not to build one-half of its HQ2 in New York after all — and politicians in the Empire State are learning an important lesson. In the end, even to crony-exploiting businesses such as Amazon, there are more important things than tax “incentives.” The biggest problem facing governments like New York is that politicians have decided to play dealmaker between businesses and workers instead of doing what they should be doing: Governing. As Kevin Williamson writes at National Review, “A New York City with a functional subway system and schools you wouldn’t mind sending your children to wouldn’t need to bribe Amazon to set up shop there.” The same can be said for Nevada. (Read More)