Property taxes
“Fixing” Nevada’s property tax structure is an idea that comes up every legislative session, and 2019 will likely be the same. But while Nevada’s property tax structure certainly needs revision, it’s crucial that any “fix” doesn’t increase taxes on property owners. While many politicians see you and your home as their potential ATMs, the never-ending tax-and-spend schemes they push are bringing fiscal destruction to a sad and growing list of states. Illinois is a perfect example: Today, many of its homeowners pay more per-month in taxes than they do on their home’s mortgage! (Read more)
Educational choice
Despite facing a $68 million budget deficit, Clark County School District officials have managed to find money for a new administrative position. The purpose of the position? To keep students from leaving the district in favor of charter schools. Maybe, rather than “implementing a marketing plan” to keep students in underperforming schools, the district should recognize the fact that children are unique individuals with unique educational needs — not merely funding mechanisms for a broken government-school monopoly. (Read more)
Collective bargaining
When government employees belong to a union, they often receive a “benefit” called “union leave time.” Essentially, this is where employees are able to continue collecting their taxpayer-funded salaries while working for the unions — often lobbying for higher taxes, increased government spending and/ or additional benefits. In other words, taxpayers are made to fund union activity that is aimed at promoting larger (and more expensive) government and higher taxes on taxpayers. Last week, however, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that dramatically reduces this practice at the federal level. The order was one of many steps to curb the taxpayer subsidies these unions have enjoyed for decades. (Read more)
Politics
It’s easy to get fixated on national politics and overlook the impact we can have as activists in our own backyard. Often, local change is not only easier, but it can be more bipartisan as well. As Gracy Olmstead offers in a recent New York Times article, “Localism is not a perfect cure for national division, and cannot serve as a full replacement for national politics in a globalized era. But at a time in which many Americans feel disenfranchised, disillusioned and defenseless, its empowerment may act as a sort of balm.” (Read more)
Free speech
On a daily basis, it seems, the very foundation of the First Amendment is under attack. From university “speech codes” to social-media censorship of supposed “hate speech,” our tradition of free speech is suffering assault at an alarming rate. However, all is not dark: the concept of truly protected free speech is something that still garners support throughout much of the rational world, regardless of political leanings. Nadine Strossen, who served as the president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1991 to 2008, is a case in point. In a recent interview with the libertarian website Reason.com, she eloquently observed that the best way to fight so-called “hate speech,” is with more speech. (Watch Nadine’s interview here)
