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Government reform
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And while the Congressman's campaign did receive the clarifications sought, it also appears to have received much more -- whether it noticed or not: Powerful evidence that the TASC group is finding its footing after some stumbles and looks likely to be a formidable force in Nevada this year and in years to come.
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The evidence lies, surprisingly, in the mere simplicity—and thus the political power—of the answers given to some ostensibly difficult questions posed by the Gibbons camp.
TASC's Older Sibling
Colorado governor:
TABOR works just fine
No 'fiscal straitjacket' resulted from taxpayer protections, spending limits
Writing in the Arizona Republic yesterday to refute a recent editorial, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens took strenuous issue with claims that his state’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights had put Colorado in a “fiscal straitjacket."
“Contrary to the opinion expressed in your editorial Monday (‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it’),” wrote Owens, “TABOR did not place Colorado in a ‘fiscal straitjacket.’ The budget cuts mentioned in the editorial were not the result of TABOR but entirely the recession.
Because Owens last year supported a five-year holiday from givebacks to taxpayers — a measure called “Referendum C” on his state’s November ballot — foes of TABOR-style limits on government spending have often cited Owens’ position as evidence that TABOR either “doesn’t work” or is too harsh.
Owens, however, will have none of that argument. “It's time to clear the air on the subject of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights,” he wrote. “Contrary to some beliefs, the voters did not suspend TABOR. When they supported Referendum C last fall, they simply used the provisions contained in TABOR to fix a problem commonly referred to as the ‘ratchet effect.’”
[Owens in the Arizona Republic]
Education reform
Dems slowly moving to support school choice
But
in Arizona, the governor
keeps moving the goal post
By Dan Lips
Fox
News
Supporters of school choice in Arizona must feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football.
And they must think of Gov. Janet Napolitano as Lucy -- pulling away the ball once again.
Creative destruction
The
tragedy of General Motors
The Detroit giant is a weird, scarred combination: a carmaker doing poorly, and an insurance company engulfed by its obligations. GM is heading for a wreck.
By Carol Loomis
Fortune Magazine
It is the instinctive wish of most American businesspeople, even those unlikely to be directly affected, that General Motors not go bankrupt. True, some people will say, "They had it coming to them." But the majority will be more practical, telling themselves that the company is so central to the economy, so sprawling in its commercial reach, that bankruptcy--"going into chapter," as restructuring folks say--is ominous almost beyond contemplation. And yet the evidence points, with increasing certitude, to bankruptcy.
Philanthropy
Out-of-towners leave
Las Vegas enriched
By Alana Roberts
InBusiness Las Vegas
Las Vegas is used to visiting conventioneers leaving some of their money behind.
But 600 sales executives with consumer products giant Unilever left a big chunk of change and the results of some hard work to benefit the Southern Nevada community.
Predation
Millions
hit by tax
intended for wealthy
By Steve Stanek
Budget
& Tax News
Millions of middle-income Americans are about to be hit by the alternative minimum tax (AMT), enacted nearly 30 years ago to ensure the nation's wealthiest citizens pay income taxes.
Congress failed to act on the AMT in 2005, leaving more than 15 million Americans to feel its bite this year. That's four times the 3.8 million affected in 2005. The Internal Revenue Service estimates more than 30 million taxpayers will be hit by the tax by 2010 if nothing is done to change it.
"The Alternative Minimum Tax represents the single biggest threat to the wallets of tens of millions of middle-class taxpayers in 2006, yet Congress could not even agree to extend temporary safeguards from this stealth tax for another year," said the National Taxpayers Union's Pete Sepp.
Government licensing
Contractors board
reversal raises questions
By Jennifer Robison
Las Vegas Review-Journal
A Southern Nevada pool builder is challenging the Nevada State Contractors Board on its interpretation of the laws and regulations that apply to pool constructors.
Renaissance Pools & Spas on Thursday presented a 13-point petition to the contractors board, seeking clarification of the rules it uses to monitor and regulate pool construction in the state.
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