$116,000 here, $116,000 there ... it's only tax money

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 11 Feb 2002 14:47:56 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED FEB. 11, 2002
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
$116,000 here, $116,000 there ... it's only tax money

Nevadans are supposed to be represented in the state capital not by some new class of full-time, law-making bureaucrat, but rather by ranchers and miners, storekeepers and barbers and accountants who live next door and share the taxpayer's plight. It was never intended that a citizen should have to give up his regular line of work to seek such a seat.

Nonetheless, Clark County Manager Thom Reilly faced an obvious problem when one of his employees, Terry Lamuraglia, recently declared he'll be running as a Democrat for a state Senate seat also being sought by GOP Assemblyman Dennis Nolan.

You see, Mr. Lamuraglia's current job for the county is to lobby the members of that very Legislature for which he'll now be campaigning.

The potential conflicts are blatant. ("Hi, Mr. Republican lawmaker, I'm here today to ask your support on behalf of Clark County taxpayers -- forget that speech I made last night at the Democratic fund-raiser, calling you a greedy agent of Satan. ...")

So, did Mr. Reilly regretfully inform Mr. Lamuraglia he'll have to go on unpaid leave?

Oh no. Rather, Mr. Lamuraglia is being assigned new duties. Instead of wooing the legislators and negotiating union contracts for the county, he'll now be supervising the park police, code enforcement and animal control -- filling a reorganized position which has been vcacant for 10 months.

Furthermore, since Mr. Lamuraglia's new "park safety" job is only authorized to pay $92,148, he'll be assigned some "extra responsibilities" to get his salary back up to the current $116,080 so he won't have to take a pay cut, Mr. Reilly says.

Thanks heavens. I've seen some folks try to scrape by on $92,000, and it's not a pretty sight.

Of course, if most Nevadans wanted to take on "an extra $24,000 worth of responsibilities," that would mean another full-time job. Does this mean after he wraps up his daily brunch with the county no-piles-of-dirt-in-the-yard inspectors, and then drops by the animal shelter to count the flea collars, Mr. Lamuraglia will be sweeping the floors and emptying trash cans down on Grand Central Parkway till 1 in the morning?

Or is the nature of county "administration" such that an extra coxswain can always be loaded in the shell, his "new administrative duties" consisting of the occasional memo reminding everyone to fold the boxes flat before they're put in the dumpster?

Fact is, not only will Mr. Reilly beef up this "vacant position" into a six-figure job for Mr. Lamuraglia, he will also now hire Dan Musgrove, already a legislative lobbyist for the city of Las Vegas (no conflict there), to handle Mr. Lamuraglia's lobbying duties. So not only will taxpayers still be paying Mr. Lamuraglia $116,000 while he doesn't do his job -- they now get to turn around and pay up to $92,000 to someone else, to do his job (assuming county taxpayers should be required to pay someone to go "lobby" their own elected delegates, in the first place.)

Fortunately, Nevada's Founders foresaw such conflicts, and barred some citizens from serving in the Legislature.

Nevada's Constitution clearly states that government shall be divided into the legislative, executive and judicial departments, "and no person charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of these departments shall exercise any functions, appertaining to either of the others. ..."

As late as May 9, 1955, a state attorney general's opinion from Harvey Dickerson held that a part-time public school janitor, having been elected to the state Assembly, could not assume that legislative seat until he retired the executive branch position -- be it ever so humble -- foreswearing any income whatsoever from the school district.

Yet the last time we counted, back in 1999, 28 out of 63 Nevada legislators were either public employees or married to public employees. (In at least four cases, both the legislator and his or her spouse held executive branch jobs.)

Are these the "citizen legislators" we used to talk about? Of course not. Government employees routinely refer to a tax cut not as something that "leaves more money in our pockets," but rather as something that "costs us money," whereupon they routinely demand with a snarl, "And how are you going to pay for that?"

Of the 50 states, only Nebraska still shows the common sense to do what Nevada's Constitution firmly requires -- barring all public employees, including government schoolteachers and lobbyists, from serving in the Legislature.

At the very least, Mr. Reilly should inform the well pampered Mr. Lamuraglia that -- should he win the office he seeks -- he will then have to choose.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. For information on his monthly newsletter and on his next book, "The Ballad of Carl Drega," dial 775-348-8591.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair

End the War on Freedom

$116,000 here, $116,000 there ... it's only tax money