Opinion/Streetalk

THiS Modern World by tom tomorrow

To tell the truth What do you want from 2015?

Being the people who make a newspaper must be kind of like being the people who make hot dogs: There are things that you just can’t unsee. In the interest of not trying to predict the future of the most anti-tax legislature Nevada has ever had—and again, we’re not predicting, just saying it walks like a duck—we were going to attempt to withhold prejudgment.

But like the rest of the world, we read and heard what Gov. Brian Sandoval had to say at his swearingin, and we can’t just hold our tongues. Fingers, that is.

Have you done a head count, Gov. Sandoval? The anti-taxers are in the majority. We have a tough time believing that the taxes that are scheduled to sunset this year won’t sunset. These guys are committed. Our colleagues in journalism around the state, too, have ignored the meaning of the election, continuing to predict “tax reform,” whatever that means.

It’s nice to put on a game face right before your career comes to a screeching halt—to be proudly optimistic—but while Sandoval’s popularity as a governor is unquestioned, his bona fides as a rabid righter among these wolverines isn’t even up for negotiation. To their minds, he’s liberal-to-moderate. So some of the statements like the ones he made in his swearingin speech are difficult to parse. (You can read the prepared speech on Sacramento’s Capitol Public Radio site, http://bit.ly/1vZOssY because the governor’s staff didn’t bother to post it on the governor’s website.) We know the right didn’t buy his arguments, and if we know it, we know Gov. Sandoval knows it.

Some of his statements aren’t hard to dissect: “People say Nevada is at the top of all the bad lists, and the bottom of all the good lists. This perception cannot—and will not—be our reality.” It’s true, and calling it perception doesn’t change the facts that those rankings are based on real numbers in comparisons with other states’ real numbers. Sometimes perception and reality are the same thing. We have to first recognize the problems are real before the governor and the Legislature begin to fix them. We’re just kidding about that last part.

“My friends, we have been given the gift of an opportunity to make history. To my fellow constitutional officers, legislative leadership here represented, and the justices of our supreme court. … This is our time. History unfolds around us. We must choose between indecision and action, between complacency and courage, between the status quo and what might be.

“The Nevada I know will choose action, courage and opportunity. We will choose optimism. I know this in my heart. And I ask that you pledge with me the promise of opportunity as we build a new foundation for what lies ahead.”

Low whistle and slow clap.

We wish Gov. Sandoval and the 2015 Nevada Legislature the best of luck. We have high hopes that they will act contrary to their track records and instead make financial decisions that improve our education system, moderate the state’s regressive tax system, and not attempt to undermine the civil liberties of women and minorities.

But at the very minimum, everybody should at least stop pretending that everything’s rosy. Ω

Asked at U.S. Post Office, 1674 N. Virginia St.

John Allison

Accountant 2016. That’s what I’m asking for—2016.

Aaron Smith

Student To get good grades at UNR because it’s my last year. And I’d also like for my mom and my brother and my girlfriend, Stephanie, to have success and happiness.

Tenita Pardue

Businessperson Well, I’m a business owner, so I want to expand my business. I have five ATM machines, and I would like to have everything settled, so then I can expand my business.

Douglas Perthel

Hospital orderly A better year health-wise, for myself.

Drew Sheehy

Student I would like to graduate from UNR. I’m working on my master’s in environmental chemistry.