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The pathetic politics of budget cuts are on full display in Washington, thanks to the sequester that’s scheduled to take effect Friday.
Back in August 2012, four former Nevada first ladies appeared before the Clark County School Board to champion a $5.3 billion construction bond, vowing to raise the money necessary to win voter approval of the property tax increase needed to pay for it. They cited their own poll, which found that 55 percent of voters supported the bond.
On Monday, Nevada legislators observed Education Awareness Day. Thousands of teachers started their day with few resources and overcrowded classes and, in Clark County, they taught 50,000 students who do not speak English as their primary language. They ended the day the same way they started: exhausted, but ready to start the next day to do the same thing — teach.
Eleventh-hour deals to pass short-term solutions in Washington have become so common, most people don’t even notice anymore. But the stakes are higher than ever with the automatic budget cuts, also known as the sequester, set to take effect Friday.
There’s a classic scene in the gone-too-soon HBO series “Deadwood,” when an exhausted Wild Bill Hickok tries to dissuade his good friend from helping to find a job for the increasingly restless gunfighter. “Can you let me go to hell the way I want to?” Hickock pleads.
In an effort to improve pedestrian flow on sidewalks along the Las Vegas Strip, Clark County Manager Don Burnette recommends moving about 33 fire hydrants, removing or relocating all trash cans and possibly relocating traffic signal equipment and signs that slow foot traffic along walkways.
Nevada’s open meeting law requires public bodies to deliberate and vote on matters that come before them in open, public meetings. In fact, a majority of any such board can’t meet in private, at all — except for incidental contact, where members may find themselves attending the same social function, for example.
Education funding will be a primary focus of the 2013 Legislature. If majority Democrats call for higher taxes, they’ll do so with the goal of boosting spending on Nevada’s public schools.