EDITORIAL: State worker pay cuts? Oh my!

For all his flaws, Gov. Jim Gibbons is the only elected official in state government who demonstrates an understanding of the sacrifice and suffering of Nevada businesses and their workers. The Republican's proposal to impose a 6 percent pay cut on all state employees, including schoolteachers, is an unfortunate but necessary attempt to address an important issue and put Nevada on a fiscally sustainable path.

Over the past year, the pages of this newspaper have chronicled the dire economic hardships thrown upon once-thriving industries. The declining tourist traffic. The rising unemployment rate. The free-falling tax collections. Companies and homeowners unable to meet their debt obligations. Schedule reductions. Vanishing income. Investments gone bust. And the massive campaign of cooperation between institutions to keep businesses open, workers working and families from being tossed into the streets.

But throughout this decline, Nevada's government employees have been snuggled under their blankets of insulation, protected from the cold realities of recession. Their income has kept rising. Their positions have been preserved. Their retirements remain guaranteed.

And judging from their collective response to Gov. Gibbons' 2009-11 budget plan -- and the reaction of their political protectors -- nothing is supposed to change.

"If you want to drive teachers away, wreck the education system totally, demolish -- take 6 percent away and see what that does," said Clark County Education Association President Ruben Murillo.

"It doesn't make sense," said Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas.

No, what doesn't make sense is that this whole drama could have been avoided if the Legislature had done the right thing last summer and eliminated a 4 percent pay raise given to all state employees at an ongoing cost of $130 million per year. Gov. Gibbons and lawmakers from both parties knew the state couldn't afford to provide the raises, and they knew the economy was worsening. Instead, they ended up borrowing through a line of credit -- putting taxpayers into debt to fund pay raises that far exceeded average private-sector raises. It was shortsighted and cowardly.

Now Gov. Gibbons merely proposes taking back that raise, along with the 2 percent hike that took effect almost two years ago, to balance a two-year state budget estimated to total about $5.7 billion.

Teachers unions and state worker representatives already are calling Gov. Gibbons' proposal dead on the grounds that they have contracts. But those contracts can't guarantee the kind of economic growth needed to pay for them. As the country's mortgage meltdown proved, contracts can be renegotiated when it's in the best interest of both parties.

Would state employees rather lose their jobs, or absorb a pay cut equal to the Social Security withholding that private-sector workers pay?

Gov. Gibbons' plan likely won't survive in its current form, given that Democrats dominate the Legislature. But it's about time somebody in Carson City had the courage to recognize that this issue must be on the table.