August '10 Nevada Government—Governor Jim Gibbons Column

Governor Gibbons Wants Expedited Acceptance Of Federal Edujobs Funding

Gibbons wants assurances that funds will be spent on educating children

August 12, 2010 – Carson City, NV – Governor Jim Gibbons is working to quickly facilitate the acceptance of one-time federal education funds to help Nevada’s school children. The U.S. Congress passed the “Edujobs” bill Tuesday, which provides one-time funding to save and/or create teaching jobs in public schools. The bill, signed by President Obama Tuesday evening, would provide $83 million to Nevada to create or maintain 1,400 teaching positions for school year 2010–2011.

“With both declining revenues and declining enrollment, Nevada’s K-12 schools have been hard hit, and our children are bearing the brunt of this economic downturn,” Gibbons said, “Though the federal funding is limited to one year, I have high hopes that we can use this money to directly deliver more education services to our children and grandchildren. I am working to see if we can capitalize on this one-time opportunity and make it work for Nevada and make a real difference for our children.”

Governor Gibbons had proposed eliminating class size reductions laws for primary grades because the mandated class sizes have never been fully funded by the Nevada Legislature or the funding that was legislatively approved was diverted by school districts to other uses. By accepting the one-time federal funds, Governor Gibbons hopes to experiment with full-funding of class size reduction for school year 2010-2011, which would enable Nevada to study whether class size reduction in primary grades truly impacts both student achievement and performance.

Governor Gibbons discussed the Edujobs bill by telephone Wednesday with Nevada State School Superintendent of Public Instruction Keith Rheault, and with the Superintendents of Clark and Washoe County School Districts – the two largest school districts in the state. Both Superintendent Walt Rulffes of Clark County and Superintendent Heath Morrison of Washoe County indicated their preference is to fund additional teaching positions to reduce class sizes in not only primary grades, but also in upper elementary grades and even in important areas such as high school mathematics. The Superintendents agreed that, though it appears the federal bill would allow funds to be used for such items as teacher raises, the most appropriate use of the one-time funding is to hire more teachers to provide direct services to students and to reduce class sizes.

“Nevada’s future depends on providing the best education possible for our children. We need to stop using education funds to pay for union dues and layers of bureaucracy. Our K-12 education funding is too precious to be used for anything other than educating our children,” Gibbons said.

Governor Gibbons also noted that the Edujobs bill is another example of Washington DC dictating to the states how local governments spend tax money, much like the Obamacare Nationalized Health Plan and the Stimulus Plan. “It is continued arrogance of the bureaucrats in the Reid/Obama Administration to believe that all 50 states have identical education needs,” Governor Gibbons said, “Congressional leaders should have given states like Nevada more leeway to spend this money. The way the law is written, school districts in Nevada are not allowed to spend the money on things they determine they need, such as new textbooks, student supplies, or computers. Under the new law, they MUST spend the Edujobs money on salaries.”

Governor Announces First Renewable Energy Tax Abatement

Construction and facility jobs will be created

August 10, 2010 – Carson City, NV – Governor Jim Gibbons today announced a major step in the future of renewable energy in Nevada. Nevada Energy Commissioner Dr. Hatice Gecol has awarded the first renewable energy tax abatements of $10.4 million to Ormat Technologies, Inc., a Reno-based Corporation. The award will allow the company to create 60 new construction jobs in the Pershing County area

Ormat’s new project in Jersey Valley, located in Pershing County, received approximately $10.4 million in partial tax abatements over 20 years. Pershing County Commissioners approved the application for the property tax abatements and supported the approval of sales and use tax abatement for the project at their May 19, 2010 meeting.

“This first renewable energy tax abatement award signifies an important step for Nevada,” Governor Jim Gibbons said, “Renewable energy has the potential to supply a significant portion of our state’s energy needs, provide economic development opportunities for rural communities like Pershing County, diversify our economy, and create high-paying jobs at this crucial time in Nevada.”

Ormat’s facility is a 15-megawatt geothermal project which will provide clean energy to 11,250 homes for the next 20 years in Nevada. The facility will employ nearly 60 construction workers and create eight to 10 new permanent jobs during its life time. For the next three years, the Pershing County School District will gain local school support tax in the amount of $738,810 and the local government will collect $4.14 million in property taxes over the abatement period.

Ormat is headquartered in Reno and is engaged in the geothermal and recovered energy power business.

Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick sponsored the Renewable Energy Tax Abatement legislation in the 2009 session in order to attract developers to the state’s renewable energy resources and build new transmission infrastructure.

More details about the project and Ormat’s application for the tax abatement can be found at the Commissioner’s web site at: http://renewableenergy.state.nv.us/TaxAbatement_projects.htm

Nevada Continues Court Fight Against Nationalized Health Care

August 6, 2010 – Carson City, NV – Governor Jim Gibbons today announced the response to the federal government’s motion to dismiss Nevada’s lawsuit against Obamacare has been filed. Lawyers for Nevada, along with state attorneys general and governors of 19 other states today filed a response to the Department of Justice’s motion to dismiss in the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care reform act. Today’s filing also includes the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) as a co-plaintiff on behalf of its members nationwide, as well as two individual citizens.

“Nevada families are already footing the bill just to set up pre-planning for the Reid/Obama Nationalized Health Care Plan,” Governor Gibbons said, “This unconstitutional and ill-conceived nationalized health care plan is sick and will trample the constitutional rights of all Nevada families.”

The lawsuit alleges that the new law infringes upon the constitutional rights of Nevada residents and residents of the other states by mandating all persons have qualifying health care insurance or pay a penalty. By imposing such a mandate, the law exceeds the powers of the United States under Article I of the Constitution, including the ‘Commerce Clause,’ which has never been applied to allow Congress to compel people to buy unwanted goods or services. Additionally, the penalty enforcing the mandate constitutes an unlawful direct tax in violation of Article I, sections 2 and 9 of the Constitution.

The lawsuit further claims the health care reform law infringes on the sovereignty of the states and Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by imposing onerous new operating rules that Nevada must follow, as well as requiring the state to spend billions of additional dollars. This burden comes at a time when Nevada faces severe budget cuts to offset shortfalls in an already-strained budget.

The Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss the case in June, claiming the individual mandate fell under Congress’ ‘taxing and spending’ authority.

The motion to dismiss claimed the timing of the lawsuit was too early, but the states responded today that resources are already being spent on planning and operational activities they must undertake to meet the federal requirements of the law. The states argued that they have standing to bring the lawsuit because the federal health care law negatively affects state sovereignty and provides additional stress on already lean state budgets. Under the new law, Florida will be forced to vastly broaden its Medicaid eligibility standards to accommodate upwards of 50 percent more enrollees. Nevada’s Medicaid program currently consumes about 17% of the State’s total financial outlays.

The lawsuit was originally filed in federal court in the Northern District of Florida on March 23, minutes after the health care reform act was signed into law by President Obama. The hearing on issues raised by the motion to dismiss will be held on September 14 in Pensacola before Judge Roger Vinson. Earlier this week, a judge in a similar lawsuit in Virginia ruled against the Department of Justice’s motion to dismiss, allowing Virginia's lawsuit to move forward.

A copy of response to the motion to dismiss will be available online at http://www.healthcarelawsuit.us.

Plaintiff's Memorandum In Opposition To Defendants' Motion To Dismiss (pdf)