Las Vegas Weekly

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Brian Sandoval has a tough job. No one disputes that. You kinda have to wonder what the hell the guy was thinking running for governor in the first place. But his freshman-year repetition of the phrase “shared sacrifice” is sounding pretty hollow when the bulk of this year’s state budget cuts will fall squarely on education. In addition to horrifying cuts to higher education, his budget has the Clark County School District cutting $411 million over the next year, which translates to 2,500 positions, salary cuts of 8 percent and dramatic increases in class size. Seriously, how much worse do things have to get in Nevada before we get a governor who says something along the lines of, “Gee, maybe we could start with a teeny-weeny tax and see how it goes”? Because make no mistake, folks, our state will have no problem cutting even further next year. And unless something changes in our tax structure, education will be cut again next year. And maybe the year after that. The only “sacrifice” in that scenario will be the further erosion of Nevada’s reputation among businesses looking to relocate. And hey, Brian, we have a question: Isn’t “shared sacrifice” the very definition of a tax?