The spend and spend Democrats in the Nevada Legislature and their SEIU and Teachers Union (NSEA) employers have bristled at Governor Gibbons proposal to put the state back on the track of fiscal responsibility and adopt his educational reform proposal.
To refresh your memory from my January 7th post, the proposal embodied the following:
- Abolish collective bargaining. This has no place in government.
- Abolish the class-size reduction program, a make-work union rule. (There were 70 in my 3rd grade with one teacher!)
- Create a statewide school voucher system.
- Eliminate full-day kindergarten requirement.
- Repeal the prohibition against using student achievement data in teacher evaluations. Another union boondoggle rule!
Sensible, practical proposals for a state facing deficits, unfunded liabilities, and declining revenue this year and next at the very minimum. But the fat cat Democrats howled because their union bosses told them to howl!
So the Governor has asked the legislative leadership to draft bills along those lines for consideration in a special session. The Democratic leadership has refused. The Governor has contemplated a lawsuit against the legislature. Unfortunately this has echos of Guinn v. Legislature. Recall that was another phony, laughable suit filed by RINO Guinn and his then Attorney General Brian Sandoval against the legislature to compel action on the budget. Result: laughable decision derided nationally as reported in the WSJ and finally recanted by the same Supreme Court that issued it!
The Governor has correctly made his point. The Democrats have made theirs and shown who owns them–not the voters but the unions! The remedy for this constitutional standoff is at the ballot box, not in the Supreme Court. Simply, the Court cannot legally, constitutionally compel legislative action. The Democrats will have failed to do their Constitutional duty to consider legislation proposed to correct our fiscal insanity. Then, let the Nevada voters decide if they want the public servants making more money, with better benefits, and higher unfunded pensions that the average voters have. Let the Nevada voters decide if they want the state and local governments to be bankrupt while the fat cat Democrats laugh all the way to the bank.
Unfortunately, Brian Sandoval the Republican candidate opposing Governor Jim Gibbons for the party’s nomination, has shown himself to be the spend and spend RINO he was when he argued the Guinn v. Legislature lawsuit many years ago. He too opposes Governor Guinn’s very good proposals on education reform and fiscal sanity.
Tom Motherway