Work undone?

As state archivist, Guy Rocha is a walking reference guide to Nevada history. No one has more familiarity with the people and events that shaped Nevada's rise from rough-and-tumble cow country to international tourist destination, with the characters and skirmishes that forged an independent streak hundreds of miles wide.

So it's a bit surprising that Mr. Rocha, who has provided 28 years of dedicated service, would use his Feb. 2 retirement to call for the Legislature to do precisely what Nevadans have loathed for generations: jack up taxes.

"I know I could stay longer, but is it worth it?" Mr. Rocha asked in an interview with the Review-Journal. "I don't want to see 28 years of work essentially undone in the next biennium. We could barely keep the doors open under the worst-case scenario."

Like any good historian, Mr. Rocha has a knack for the dramatic. Right now, the worst-case scenario under the state's current revenue structure would give lawmakers somewhere between $5.5 billion and $5.8 billion to spend between 2009 and 2011. The state won't be closing any doors, anytime soon, no matter how bad the economy gets in 2009.

Nevertheless, Mr. Rocha wants lawmakers to expand the state's tax burden to save government jobs at the expense of the private-sector workers who fund them. Although he can't bear to continue working in a state government that needs a dramatic makeover, he plans to speak out in retirement against any proposal he deems threatening to his longtime employer.

"I find it disturbing this state that has essentially been my life is, in my opinion, on the brink of disaster," he said. "You can't cut 34 percent or more without devastating state government."

And what about the devastation already taking place in the business community? Mr. Rocha himself says the state's current economy is its worst in more than 100 years -- the Great Depression was kinder to Nevada than other states, he said. Only "the Great Mining Recession" of the 1880s and 1890s was worse, according to Mr. Rocha.

Yet government shouldn't be subject to comparable sacrifice? It should expand and provide generous pay raises to its workers, year after year?

Mr. Rocha has been an invaluable resource to the state for nearly three decades. We wish him well in retirement and hope he finds a way to continue putting his expertise to productive use.

But he should spend more time reflecting on what has allowed Nevada to grow and prosper over the past century. It's not higher taxes.