Be very afraid

Taxpayers are like Floyd Mayweather Jr. opponents. Everyone expects them to take a beating.

But some beat downs are worse than others. Here are five stories from last year where the public needed a cut and a spit bucket. I give you the five worst taxpayer nightmares of 2014:

5. Government employees on paid leave. In the private sector, brazen misconduct gets you canned. In the public sector, it gets you an extended paid vacation. It happens at all levels of government. The Government Accountability Office, as reported by The Washington Post, found that during the three years ending September 2013, more than 57,000 federal workers were sent home for at least a month while they waited to be punished for misconduct or cleared and allowed to return to work. That leave cost $775 million in salary alone, even though federal rules are supposed to limit paid administrative leave to workers who are considered a threat to others. In Southern Nevada, disgraced Family Court Judge Steven Jones got about a two-year paid vacation before pleading guilty to federal criminal charges.

4. Nevada’s school districts. The Washoe County School District paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlement costs to its fire superintendent and police chief. The Clark County School District used tax money to settle a personal claim against Trustee Erin Cranor, and its Adult English Language Acquisition director retired to her pension after being charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the department. And the Clark County School Board used its last capital bond funds to renovate an existing school instead of build new schools to relieve crowded campuses.

3. Binding arbitration. University Medical Center is bleeding money, yet county officials can’t even trim personnel costs for future hospital hires. Why? Because an unelected, unaccountable arbitrator who lives on a golf course in Minnesota said so. State law requires that arbitrators settle contract disputes by picking labor’s offer or management’s offer, not anything in between. The summer ruling from the arbitrator, which prevented the county from ending longevity pay for future hires, denied the money-losing hospital an estimated 30-year savings of $122 million.

2. Nevada Health Link. The state’s Obamacare exchange has been a complete disaster in every way imaginable, from a horrible website to its failure to cover people who paid their premiums. The site had to be taken down this year to be rebuilt, routing Nevada customers through the federal exchange. Tens of millions of federal tax dollars were flushed.

1. Carolyn Goodman. The Las Vegas mayor declared open season on your wallet in 2014 by shoveling cash at city public relations and public schools, then calling for sales and property tax increases to boost revenues for services the city is actually charged with providing. She displayed hostility to business by demanding that medical marijuana dispensaries operate as nonprofits and allowing the Fire Department to greatly expand patient transportation, a service capably handed by private-sector American Medical Response. And for her coup de grace, she pushed a heavily subsidized downtown soccer stadium to approval despite taxpayer opposition.

One, two, Carolyn’s coming for you. Three, four, better lock your door. Fix, six, grab your crucifix. Seven, eight, gonna stay up late. Nine, ten, never sleep again.

NewsFeed

Hashtags &Headlines, the Review-Journal’s policy luncheon series, is history. It’s been replaced by NewsFeed, a partnership between the Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce that presents breakfast discussions on the important issues of the day. NewsFeed debuts Monday, Jan. 12, with a preview of what promises to be a very eventful legislative session.

I’m moderating a conversation with Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson, R-Las Vegas; Senate Minority Leader Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas; Assembly Speaker-designate John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas; and Assembly Minority Leader Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, about tax reform, K-12 and higher education issues, business concerns before lawmakers and how the state might fund the 2015-17 budget.

The breakfast runs from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Four Seasons inside Mandalay Bay. Advance tickets cost $40 and can be purchased at www.lvchamber.com, or by calling 702-641-5822. Jan. 12 walk-ins cost $50. Hope to see you there.

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s senior editorial writer. Follow him on Twitter: @Glenn_CookNV.

Political columnist Steve Sebelius will return Wednesday.