‘… and we’ll take it from there’

In Carson City, the Legislature's Democratic leaders remain adamant that they have not yet decided whether taxes must be increased to counter cuts proposed by Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Judging from the language of Senate Bill 2, they're going to raise taxes to the moon -- and back.

Sponsored by Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, SB2 would pour an additional $1.6 billion into the public schools beyond what the governor proposes spending -- beyond what the state's current tax structure is expected to extract from the battered economy over the next two years.

Sen. Schneider hates the fact that various rankings of education spending -- most of which don't consider the billions of dollars Nevada taxpayers commit to school construction and school employee retirement benefits -- put the state somewhere between 41st and 49th among the states.

"Let's say we can move up a few notches," Sen. Schneider said during a Monday committee hearing on the bill. "Can we move up five notches this time? Can we do it and set the goal for next session to move up another five?"

Study after study shows no correlation between per-student spending and student achievement. And Sen. Schneider's bill provides no accountability measures in the event schools demonstrate no progress even after receiving all that proposed extra loot.

But more importantly, Sen. Schneider's bill doesn't say where that $1.6 billion in new funding will come from. It's typical Democratic Party legislation, demanding huge increases in revenue without specifying which taxes would be increased -- and by how much -- to pay the bills.

Unless, of course, Sen. Schneider knows something his party leaders aren't telling us.