Jim Gibbons As a candidate, the governor said no artificial spending limit was needed

Gov. Jim Gibbons' proposed budget exceeds the limits that would have been set by the tax and spending control ballot initiative if the measure had been in place, according to a new independent analysis.

Gibbons wasn't in favor of the initiative, which was backed by his Republican primary opponent state Sen. Bob Beers. Gibbons said if elected, his fiscally responsible leadership would make external limits on spending unnecessary.

According to the study, the $6.8 billion budget Gibbons has proposed "is $268 million larger than what the common-sense TASC limitation would have allowed."

The study was commissioned by the conservative group Take Back Nevada and conducted by the Beacon Hill Institute, an economic think tank at Boston's Suffolk University.

Take Back Nevada's president, Bob Adney, said the group wanted to refocus the legislative debate from a more fiscally conservative point of view.

"People in Carson City have forgotten about the taxpayers," he said. "They see it (state revenue) as just money that's theirs to spend."

Adney was also executive director of the tax and spending initiative drive and worked for Beers. The initiative collected some 156,000 signatures, nearly double the required amount, although opponents claimed signature-gatherers engaged in widespread fraud.

The signatures were moot, however, when the Nevada Supreme Court tossed the measure off the ballot in September.

Even if it had passed, the initiative, which would have limited government spending increases to the combined rate of population growth and inflation, would not have affected the current budget cycle. But Adney said the growth measures were a good yardstick by which to judge spending, as they reflected the pace of the state's actual growth.

Adney and a member of his group's board, Kris Munn, met with Gibbons' chief of staff, Mike Dayton, on Monday and presented the report to him.

Dayton said the governor was "comfortable" with the amount of spending he had proposed.

"The governor said he did not support TASC. He's consistent," Dayton said. "He feels that we are living within our means. He's being criticized both from the left and from the right for the amount of spending. I think that probably means he's doing a pretty good job of governing from the middle."

Dayton rejected the idea that population growth and inflation were sufficient measures of growth.

"Sometimes needs don't reflect exact population growth and inflation," he said. "There are social needs, educational needs and population growth plus inflation may not reflect that. There are a lot of factors, both subjective and objective. The governor's looking at what's in the accounts, what revenue is available and how best to spend the dollars Nevadans have."

In a February 2006 statement opposing the initiative, Gibbons said, "I will work to make sure our government remains as limited and focused as possible. Spending should be based on needs and resources, not on an arbitrary formula."

Dayton said Gibbons remains opposed to raising taxes and will propose budget cuts if, as expected, state revenue projections are further scaled back this week. Gibbons' proposed budget uses all the revenue the state is projected to take in, although it falls short of a different cap on proposed spending set by statute.

The institute's report notes that in his State of the State address, Gibbons crowed about having fallen under that cap. "Ironically, the governor was submitting a budget that was indeed a product of (the) 'budgeting by formula' approach that he rejected during the campaign," the report notes.

However, the report points out, the statutory cap applies only to the governor's proposed budget, not to the budget that ultimately is passed by the Legislature and signed into law.

The report estimates that the initiative would have allowed 2007-09 spending to grow to $6.572 billion from the $5.798 billion appropriated in 2005-07. That represents an increase of 13.4 percent.

The governor's proposed budget, however, is an increase of 18 percent over the previous biennium. "Had the TASC formula been in place for the current budget cycle, the governor's proposal for general fund appropriations would have been $268 million over the limit," the report concludes.

Beers said Monday he agreed that proposed spending was excessive and he was working to get the budget down. But he said he didn't blame Gibbons for the budget, most of which he said was inherited from former Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Beers said he firmly believed population growth and inflation were appropriate guidelines for spending increases that should be followed. "Absolutely, with plenty of room to spare after the wild expansion of the last four years," he said.