Education, Regulation/Economic Development

In case you missed it…

John Tsarpalas

Anniversary Dinner (September 17th, in Las Vegas)

Nevada Policy has announced that Dennis Prager — best-selling author, columnist and nationally syndicated radio talk show host — will be our keynote speaker at the Institute’s Anniversary Dinner on September 17th, at the Venetian in Las Vegas! Prager is the founder of Prager University, and his radio show is heard by over two-million listeners on 150 stations across the country! The evening is bound to be fantastic, so be sure to reserve your tickets before we run out of seats! (Click here to learn more, or to register.)

 

Nevada Constitution

In successive landslide votes in 1994 and 1996, Nevadans amended the state constitution to require a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of the Legislature for it to pass any bill “which creates, generates, or increases any public revenue in any form.” (Emphasis added.) The language is pretty clear. Basically, if the legislature wants to increase public revenue — whether it be through new taxes, higher rates, or any other method — it must achieve two-thirds support in both chambers. While most people (including voters who approved the amendment) would consider the two-thirds rule to be remarkably clear, Senate Democrats in this year’s session found a way to disagree. So now, the Senate Republican Caucus is suing to invalidate a pair of tax hikes that the Ds passed without the constitutionally required level of support. (Read more)

 

Education

The Modified Business Tax extension isn’t the only lawsuit Nevada’s 2019 Legislature has triggered. Education scholarships for the children of low-income families were ripped away by legislators this year, leading families, too, to take lawmakers to court. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Assembly Bill 458, which eliminated the automatic annual increase to the state’s only funded non-public school choice program, Opportunity Scholarships. Lawyers at the Institute for Justice — the non-profit law firm representing the families who’ve filed suit — argue that AB458 raises state revenue illegitimately by ignoring the two-thirds rule and routing money into state coffers that otherwise would have gone into the low-income kids’ tax-credit scholarships. Therefore, say the IJ lawyers, AB458 violated the Nevada Constitution in this respect, as well. (Watch the video here)

 

Job creation

It’s worth repeating: Low-tax environments are not only good for business, they’re good for workers as well. The federal government’s state-level jobs report shows private-sector job growth remains concentrated in low-tax states. (What a surprise, right?) Nevada, for example, was among the states with the most private-sector growth since 2017, and had the highest growth in manufacturing! Of course, the fact that states like Nevada are booming while states like New York are struggling makes sense. After all, taxes (and the size of government in general) are part of the cost of doing business — and when that cost is lowered, businesses have more capital available to invest in its workforce. (Read more)

 

Culture

Political bias in academia has reached absurd levels in many cases. According to a 2017 study of college professors, almost 40 percent of the nation’s top liberal-arts colleges had zero Republican faculty on staff. Party politics isn’t everything, of course. However, the curriculum in public education and higher education is often equally as biased. Important topics like American civics, free markets, capitalism and self-governance are treated with extreme skepticism and hostility in many schools — if such topics are even mentioned at all. With this in mind, here are a handful of books that are excellent places to start if you’re interested in teaching students about the value of liberty, free markets and western-style democracy this school year: View the list

John Tsarpalas

John Tsarpalas

President

John Tsarpalas is the President of the Nevada Policy, and is deeply committed to spreading limited government ideas and policy to create a better, more prosperous Nevada for all.

For over three decades, John has educated others in the ideals and benefits of limited government. In the 1980s, John joined the Illinois Libertarian Party and served on its State Central Committee. Later in the 90s, he transitioned to the Republican Party, and became active in the Steve Forbes for President Campaign and flat taxes.

In 2005, he was recruited to become the Executive Director of the Illinois Republican Party where he graduated from the Republican National Committee’s Campaign College, the RNC’s Field Management School, and the Leadership Institute’s activist training.

Additionally, John has served as President of the Sam Adams Alliance and Team Sam where he did issue education and advocacy work in over 10 states, with a focus on the web.

John also founded or helped start the following educational not-for-profits: Think Freely Media, the Haym Salomon Center – where he served as Chairman, the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity and Midwest Speaking Professionals.

A native of Chicago, John now lives in Las Vegas with his wife of more than 40 years.