Deregulator: Alive since '85!

Happy Independence Day Annoy a bureaucrat. a bluenose, or anyone else who fails to appreciate what this anniversary means. Seeds of compromise? Kenny Guinn caves (a little), saying he'll accept $783 million in new taxes for the next biennium. That's roughly $200 million less than the benchmark he set ... the one that's deadlocked the state budgetary process for the past five weeks. But it would still constitute the largest tax increase in state history by more than a factor of two. (And depending on which taxes lawmakers raise, and how much of these new revenues are backloaded, the hike could go much higher.) Leaders of both houses and both parties are set to convene Saturday to decide what batch of new levies can get the two-thirds approval needed to pass constitutional muster and to keep the state Supreme Court on the sidelines. The political establishment, still whipped by the gaming industry, keeps pushing for a variation of the gross receipts tax on non-gaming compani...

See ya Monday The Nevada Supreme Court gives parties until 5 p.m. Monday, July 7, to file briefs in the budget dispute. Advantage: tax resisters. Meanwhile, the Clark County (Las Vegas) School District concedes it has enough in the till to operate until the new school year opens in late August. So what's the rush?

Deadlock! Stalemate! Huzzah! For the first time since 1867, the Nevada Legislature has failed to start a new fiscal year with a balanced budget. Fifteen Assembly Republicans held firm, denying (by a one-vote margin) Gov. Kenny Guinn and the bipartisan Carson City establishment the record-setting $1 billion-plus tax increase they demanded. Guinn has now asked the state Supreme Court to intervene, but where that will lead is anyone's guess. Last week, the governor showed his tenuous connection with the knowledge of how government actually works -- separation of powers and such -- by suggesting that the justices might unilaterally impose a tax plan. (Talk about your high court!) There's also the theory that the court could force the Legislature to stay in session until the budget is balanced, but with the constitutional necessity of getting a two-thirds majority for any tax increase, it's not exactly clear how the justices could coerce reluctant lawmakers to vote against their...