* In pay and benefits, UNLV President Keith Whitfield reportedly gets paid, with our tax dollars, $10,861 per WEEK. Which means he makes more in one month than many Nevadans make in an entire year.
* Included in this princely sum is a “car allowance” of $8,000 per year…courtesy of you, the taxpayer. What a gig!
* Why are taxpayers paying this government employee $666/month toward his car payment when he’s making over $43,000/month?
* So much for budget-buster claims that government spending can’t be cut without hurting government services such as police officers, fire-fighters and teachers, as well as playgrounds, parks, ballfields and other amenities enjoyed by the “little people.”
* $8,000 here and $8,000 there and pretty soon we’re talking about real money.
* Exposing and stopping this was the intent of a bill introduced during the 2021 legislative session by conservative Republican then-Assemblywoman Annie Black – which, of course, never even got a hearing in the Democrat-controlled body, let alone a vote.
* Her CONES Act (Cut Out Non-Essential Spending) would have created a legislative committee to “identify areas in which state expenditures may be eliminated or avoided; identify areas in which state expenditures may be reduced; and investigate alleged instances within state agencies of abuse, fraud or waste with respect to public money.”
* Common sense. Fiscal responsibility. No wonder the Democrats objected.
* This would be a good bill for a current conservative in the Legislature to reintroduce this session. And make a big deal of it. Pore through the budget and find similar non-essential “car allowance” abuses and bring them to the public’s attention.
* In fact, absent passage of the CONES Act, this would be a good project for State Controller Andy Matthews, a card-carrying fiscal conservative, to take on out of his office. The Controller handles the state’s checkbook and could comb through it to find “non-essential” stuff to cut.
* Oldsters will remember Democrat U.S. Sen. William Proxmire’s monthly “Golden Fleece Award” bestowed upon elected officials and government agencies that “fleeced” taxpayers with various
spending abuses.
* According to Wikipedia, Proxmire nailed the FAA in 1975 for spending $57,800 “on a study of the physical measurements of 432 airline stewardesses, that included the ‘distance from knee
to knee while sitting,’ and ‘the politeal [sic] length of the buttocks.’”
* Your tax dollars at work.
* Then there was former U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) who published an annual “Wastebook” detailing wasteful government spending, including, in 2011, “$765,000 to subsidize ‘pancakes for yuppies’ in Washington.”
* Your tax dollars at work.
* Today we still have Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) who issues an annual “Festivus Report.” In December, his report included “a $118,000 study on whether Marvel movie villain Thanos would really be able to snap his fingers while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet.”
* Your tax dollars at work.
* Similarly, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) hands out its “Porker of the Month” award to government officials who squander taxpayer dollars.
* It also publishes an annual “Congressional Pig Book” detailing millions - no, make that billions - in wasteful spending. The 2022 Pig Book includes “$500,000 for horse management at the Nevada Department of Agriculture by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).”
* Your tax dollars at work.
* Here on the home front, the Nevada Policy Research Institute (NPRI) – which, by the way, Controller Matthews was once president – for years published an annual “Piglet Book” detailing wasteful government spending in Nevada.
* In 2010, NPRI noted that the Clark County School District “had contracted with Dale Erquiaga, an ‘Emergenetics’ specialist, to describe the personality types of school board members in colors of blue, green, red or yellow. For this he received $84,000 plus $2,000 in
travel expenses.”
* Your tax dollars at work.
* That same year, NPRI exposed a major sweetheart deal engineered by current Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald…
“In April 2009, former Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald purchased a 3.9-acre parcel from the City of Las Vegas for $1.3 million. Then, in a second transaction that was recorded at the same time, McDonald turned around and immediately sold the parcel to a
supermarket chain for $3.1 million.
“City officials knew that McDonald intended to immediately sell the land for substantially more than he was purchasing it, yet agreed to sell the parcel to their former colleague for less
than the appraised value.”
* Your tax dollars at work.
* Nevada needs a permanent government waste watchdog. And if the Legislature won’t do it, I suggest Controller Matthews should take the project on himself.
* If he does it right, he could ride it straight into the governor’s office in eight years.
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views and
blogs at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.