While Gibbons plans cuts, gold prices keep climbing

Gov Jim Gibbons says he’ll need to cut the state’s share of the public school budget 10 percent to balance the state’s budget in the foundering economy. State government needs to reduce its budget by $900 million in order to balance in the new fiscal year.

Meanwhile, Nevada’s low-taxed gold mining industry continues to enjoy record highs for the precious metal. Gold is up 2 percent since
November and sits around the $1,100-per-ounce mark. Most of the major companies are headquartered in other states and countries.

Although the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) is attempting to collect enough signatures to eventually hike the tax on
gold profits, listen as political leaders on both sides of the aisle stand silent in the face of the obvious potential source of revenue.

People can talk all they want about how government budgets are too fat, and there are plenty of examples to be found. But it’s also true
that corporate gold mines, banks, and big box stores enjoy a much easier tax ride than Nevada’s casino industry.

Isn’t it time they also shared the burden?

You’d think at some point they’d be shamed into contributing to the relief effort. But that assumes they’re capable of the emotion.

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  While I’m on the subject of the state government, it’s interesting to see Gibbons position himself as the equivalent of a war-time President on the budget issue. Skeptics and Gibbons haters have snickered at me for months, but I think his image as a “recession-time” Governor is compelling to a lot of Nevadans. A man willing to make tough decisions in hard times and in the face of intense criticism: His pile of political baggage aside, that’s a strong message to beleaguered voters.