Nevada: Jim Gibbons

This was cute. TV personality and Sarah Palin wannabe Mike Huckabible had the emotionally unbalanced and mentally unsound Jim Gibbons on Fox News over the weekend (sorry, can't find a link) to talk even more about, sigh, how Barack Obama...

The Fiscal Gospel of Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons: “We want to stimulate the economy, not kill it,” he said. “We do not need to raise taxes to balance this budget. “Now is not the time to raise taxes. Now is not the time to kill recovery of the state of Nevada by changing tax formulas. Now is not time to raise taxes on sales. Now is not the time to kill jobs in the state of Nevada by raising business taxes.” [Las Vegas Sun] So, after the Economic Forum finishes crunching the numbers this afternoon there may well be another $255 million to be cut.

The Legislature this week began undoing some of the spending cuts proposed in Gov. Jim Gibbons’ budget.

Gov. Jim Gibbons announced today he will accept the full stimulus funding for unemployment benefits, putting to rest a tug-of-war with the Legislature over whether to take the money.

Gibbons had balked at $77 million in simtulus money because of federal requirements that Nevada expand benefits to about 4,100 jobless workers who aren't currently eligible for an unemployment check.

But Gibbons said today he's been assured by the federal government that the Legislature can end expanded benefits before they would become a tax burden on businesses, an argument legislative Democrats have been making for two weeks.

“As our economic crisis deepens, Nevadans are suffering because of layoffs, business closings and other cutbacks,” Gibbons said in a prepared statement.