Deregulator: Alive since '85!

TUNAGE TIME: Shamelessly following Jesse Walker , I'll also pay tribute to the music awards shows I'll never watch by naming my favorite CD purchases of 2002. I actually didn't buy that much last year, so I'll limit my selections to five: 1. John Fogerty, Blue Moon Swamp (1997) Best and most consistent Creedence album to date. Fogerty's voice is as moving as ever, and his guitar work is stellar. JF's also impossible to pigeonhole stylistically -- "Southern Streamline" has been getting airplay on my satellite dish's "New Country" channel. 2. Kid Ramos, Greasy Kid's Stuff (2001) The Fabulous T-Birds' axe man puts out another awesome solo album ... this time with the help of six terrific harmonica players, including Rod Piazza (in a rare performance away from his Mighty Flyers), Charley Musselwhite, the always hysterical Rick Estrin of Little Charlie and the Nightcats, and my man James Harman , pride of Anniston, Ala., who played ...

RIIIIIGHT... Kenny Guinn's position du jour on the budget: He may propose "temporary taxes" to close the deficit. The smart money says they'll be scheduled to sunset at approximately the end of time. In other news, I got word from a well-placed source that our state's chief executive was not at all amused with this editorial , which I wrote, in which Guinn did not compare favorably with the newly elected Democratic governor of neighboring Arizona, Janet Napolitano. Oh well. You call 'em the way you see 'em.

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH: At long last, a realistic overview of the so-called state government budget crisis in USA Today. Here's the key point: Spending by state and local governments has grown nationwide without interruption for decades, in good times and bad times alike. It has not fallen since 1944, and it has grown faster than the rate of inflation every year since 1982. The rate of spending growth is down slightly from the late 1990s, but governments remain one of the healthiest parts of the economy. They are growing at a time when corporate profits and cash flow are declining. State and local governments also have been doing more hiring than firing since the economy weakened. States employed about 31,000 more workers in December than a year earlier, an increase of 0.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Local governments employed 189,000 more workers, up 1.4%. Both are historic highs. By contrast, the private work force shrank by 467,000, a decrease of 0.4%. Me...

IMAGE PROBLEM: The National Football League prohibits the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority from purchasing ads during the Super Bowl. Seems the league doesn't want to promote gambling. Mayor Oscar Goodman's reaction was priceless. Citing a several recent incidents involving current and former pro football players convicted of committing violent crimes, Goodman said: "As far as I'm concerned, (Commissioner Paul) Tagliabue has the most deviant athletes in professional sports." Goodman also noted that NFL has no qualms about selling time to beer companies that produce ads featuring women who are much more scantily clad than any in LV's ads. The city's ad campaign, produced by the same crew that has done the "This is SportsCenter" series for ESPN, debuts today. Can't wait to see 'em.

WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN THOSE CLASSROOMS, COOKING METH? Gov. Kenny Guinn, on resistance to tax increases : "Business people can't afford to have our schools in disarray. They can't afford to have the Clark County School District, which is the economic engine of this state , shut down because they have to cut $220 million out of their budget. It will affect every business person."

TOUCHING A NERVE AMONG THE INTELLECTUALLY CHALLENGED: The response (via e-mail and fax) to my column and the paper's coverage of the budget crunch was mildly favorable, with a couple of exceptions, including this one from a reader who shall remain anonymous: Mr. Henderson, Your story has some glaring errors in it that are a common thread in [Publisher] Sherman Frederick's rambling raves about state employees and the Public Employees Retirement System. Taxpayers; state employees are taxpayers. City and county employees are taxpayers. State employees have money deducted from every pay check, or are paid at a lower rate (the so called employer paid scheme) to subsidise contributions to the PERS system. City and County employees, do not. I have pointed out these errors to Sherman Frederick on two occasions and obviously I am being ignored. Print the truth, its [sic] going to come to public notice eventually as the truth always does. I replied: Thanks for your response. The column ...

A BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE STATE: It's not hyperbole, folks. My column in today's R-J focuses on one of the key issues that will cast a pall over this spring's legislative session: The inordinate influence public employees have on the political process in Nevada. It's not a trivial matter, and indeed, as the column says, my adopted home state is fast evolving into a caste system, with government workers guaranteed higher wages, better benefits and a superior retirement system, and everyone else relegated to second-class status. That's what Nevada faces in the upcoming legislative session. Whether the Silver State will defend its longstanding tradition as a haven from high taxes and initiative-stifling welfare policies or if the forces who want to make Nevada indistinguishable from the regulatory dystopia of California (or merely another garden variety, high tax state like Arizona) will prevail. As this story from Saturday points out, Nevada's budget crisis ...