SUBMITTED NEWS RELEASE
Leaders from community groups, education advocates and service providers will have a press conference Friday in Carson City to discuss last-minute efforts to pull the state back from widespread dismantling of schools, higher education, public safety and vital services.
With the ideologically driven decision to cut revenue and not rescind so-called sunsetting taxes, hundreds of police officers and thousands of teachers, among many other service providers in local and state government, face layoffs. Some K-12 schools will be forced to cut back to four days a week, and university and colleges will cancel scores of academic degree programs. Hospice patients will be evicted from nursing homes, and children will lose access to nutrition and health programs.
Although the vote to end the revenue streams Friday has been portrayed as a “tax cut” by anti-government ideologues, the result will be increased taxes for small businesses and economic turmoil for Nevada, business leaders testified Wednesday in the Legislature. Multi-national mining and big-box discount corporations will see millions in additional profits, however.
“We are replacing a tattered social contract with a radical anti-government experiment,” noted Bob Fulkerson, director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, an umbrella coalition of about three dozen groups. “While multi-national corporations, already highly profitable, will capitalize on the dismantling of Nevada, working people will suffer more than they already have.”
The press conference will be held inside the Front Hall of the Legislature, 401 S. Carson St., Carson City, at noon tomorrow.
