Briefs have been filed in the matter of Guinn v. Nevada Legislature, and among the more entertaining is one offered by the Nevada Faculty Alliance, apparently a group of university professors who are cheesed that funding for their tidy sinecures is threatened by the budget deadlock. (Read all the briefs here.)
If you wonder why, academically speaking, UNLV and UNR aren't mentioned in the same breath as, say, Harvard or Stanford (or even Berkley or the University of North Carolina), just read the profs' little temper tantrum, er, brief, which argues that the constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds majority for tax increases is, well, an impediment to runaway spending. And that's just not fair.
Since
a) funding for public education is mandated by the Constitution;
b) a simple majority can pass spending bills, but
c) a two-thirds majority is required to raise taxes:
... either the Gibbons Initiative should be struck down as being irreconcilably in conflict with the Nevada Constitution, or in the alternative, this Court should conclude that the Gibbons Initiative is not intended ot apply where revenues are mandated to meet fundamental requirements of the Nevada Constitution.
And these folks are teaching the "best and the brightest" in Nevada.
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