Inter-Galactic Memo
To: All Personnel
Fr: W. Leavitt, Human Resources Crypto-Specialist
Re: Budget cuts
1-10-09 No. 068
In case anyone hasn’t received that other memo, or has been living on Mars without a radio, we are in a recession and the government is threatening to drive the recession into a depression, because, you know . . . that’s what governments do.
Here is Nevada, where we depend on essentially three things for revenue, tourism, tourism and tourism, things are becoming a little iffy, just like most other places. Yes, we have mining, and ranching, but c’mon, how much can the government suck out of those two industries?
So the governor here in Nevada, a guy named Jim Gibbons (if that’s his real name) had been wracking his brain to come up with ways to cut half-a-billion dollars from the Nevada budget, without sending all of his constituents to the poor house. Everyone has been asked to make sacrifices. I believe in sacrifice. Especially when it’s for the common good. But there are some important guidelines when government is calling the shots, so that they don’t get carried away and start redistributing wealth or some other insane and counter-productive idea like that.
The first guideline is that sacrifice must be equitable. Everyone needs to pitch in more or less the same. It should hurt universally, so that it isn’t individually fatal.
Second; it should be effective. If we are going to give something up, we need to be confident that it will work, that whatever we do helps.
And third; government cannot reduce people’s income past the point where they start to bleed and have to move into Uncle Fester’s 1967 motor home.
Here in Las Vegas the school districts have been asked to reduce yearly budgets by around twenty percent. (I’m making that up. If anyone wants to look it up be my guest). Cut’s have been made everywhere. They have been valiant in their attempts to keep jobs while reducing everything else, and I offer kudos for trying.
Now, however, the Governor, Mr. Gibbons (if that’s who he really is) has decided to cut state employees paychecks by 6%. That is a lot of money. And naturally, it includes teacher’s salaries. I’ve been working for CCSD for 21 years now, and have topped out on the pay scale. Cutting my pay by around $4,000 is going to not only hurt, but require serious re-organization. Fortunately, my wife and I are empty-nesters, or the cut would be a disaster of the first order. But what about all those teachers who have only been here for a few years and make half what I do, and have families? A reduction in their pay is unconscionable—they will not be able to survive. Teachers will leave, en mass. I guess that will save a lot of money . . .
I am assuming that other state employees will get their cut in the form of reduced hours. Perhaps a four-day work week until things improve. This is a common practice in the private sector and works well in government as well, if it is feasible. Is the governor going to reduce teachers hours as well? (Remember rule one—equitability) Will we be given a four day work week? Have our day reduced by an hour or two? Or are we, as usual, expected to continue working the same hours (which includes a substantial number of free hours for most teachers—especially elementary) for a lot less money?
Teachers work under contract. Does the governor plan to break the contract? And I believe our state legislature passed a law that requires education to be “funded first”. How will he juggle this multi-challenge equation?
More importantly, I’d like to see the list of other things that are being cut by 6%. I can think of two areas that I’m guessing haven’t been touched, which, if reduced or eliminated would fill the coffers to overflowing. The first is social services. As much as we all like to give away substantial portions of our income to help the less fortunate through poorly-run, money-sucking programs, at times like these, belt-tightening should be across the board. Has Health and Human services been reduced by at least 6%?
The second, which has overlap with the first, is Illegal immigration. How much money would the state save if it stopped giving it away to people who are here illegally, are not citizens, and have no right to expect the same services and opportunities actual citizens receive? Don’t get me wrong. I love and admire our friends to the south. I do not blame them for coming here, wanting a better life, wanting those very services and opportunities to which the rest of us have access—I want them to have these things too. But not when there isn’t enough money to go around. Sometimes triage is in order and our government is not doing a very good job of it.
Finally, let me revisit an incredibly unpopular idea that would generate billions in additional income for the state. Before we start talking about reducing state salaries, we need to give up the posturing concerning Yucca Mountain—a foregone conclusion—and demand that the feds pay Nevada for letting them put their nuclear garbage in our backyard, while removing all the fake roadblocks to opening the site. Why shouldn’t the fed have to pay a lease? Say two or three billion dollars a year, half of which would go to education? Maybe add a built-in COLA clause as well.
Has Mr. Gibbons forgotten that we recently took a huge hit in the stock market? Which means everyone’s retirement package has been reduced by about 30%. Teachers retirement is based on a percentage of their last three years annual pay. If he (the alleged Gov. Gibbons) adds insult to injury by reducing salaries 6%, that means our retirement will have been hit with a double-whammy which would last the rest of our lives—at a time when we would be the most vulnerable. The state wants to give us the gift that keeps on giving—screw us now and screw us later.
What about environmental programs? Slash them. How about Ethnic Diversity programs? Eliminate them. How much money does the state spend on things in which it has no business being involved? When income goes down, you have to reduce outgo to match. Period.
In short (I guess it’s too late to say that, isn’t it?), until the governor can satisfy us that his cost-cutting is fair and across the board, and he is doing everything in his power to reduce wasteful and unnecessary spending, and that he is willing to cut useless or redundant programs altogether, he will have to find someone else to pick on. Teachers, I am sure, are tired of being the brunt of everyone’s axe-wielding reduction fantasies. I know I am.
