Michael Schaus
Nevada Policy Research Institute
Published by the The Nevada Independent
February 7, 2021
Over the course of the last year, government has demonstrated an appalling inability to provide Nevadans with the resources, tools and services they needed in such a massively disruptive time.
The state’s unconscionable failure to provide unemployment benefits to thousands of workers—forced out of their jobs due to the coronavirus closures—was one of the most glaring examples. So, too, was the Clark County School District’s year-long experimentation with distance learning—an experiment in public education that has left tens of thousands of children struggling to advance academically, with the most disadvantaged children suffering the most.
And now, government lobbyists, unions and insiders are in Carson City pushing to hike taxes as a way to “solve” the challenges faced by government agencies. Increased property tax burdens, higher sales taxes and even authorizations for new local taxes will all be considered in this legislative session—and with constant budget concerns being voiced from every corner of government, it’s not hard to imagine politicians will be tempted to consider the relatively easy path of agreeing to “more revenue.”
Such a knee jerk reaction to boost budgets and tax revenue is not only economically unwise in an economic downturn, it also demonstrates a clear disinterest in addressing the fundamental reasons government has failed so many Nevadans.
For example, the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation—the office responsible for processing unemployment claims—didn’t fail spectacularly in their task merely because it was understaffed or lacked necessary technology. After all, if increased demand is an excuse for failure, the system clearly has more pressing structural issues.
In a typically bureaucratic way, the agency lacked both the ability to innovate and the accountability to incentivize the changes needed to keep up in a rapidly evolving environment. READ MORE HERE