College of Southern Nevada economics professor and NFA-CSN chapter president Dr. Shari Lyman explains in a panel discussion aired on KNPR’s “State of Nevada” radio show.  If you missed this Monday broadcast (8 Feb. 2010), hear it here (the first half-hour of a two-segment program).

For example: Our beloved gaming corporations pay far higher tax rates in other states, and they happily compete for gaming market share in states with gaming tax assessments as high as 20% (Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri), 35% (Indiana), and 50% (Indiana and Pennsylvania).  Nevada asks for a measly 6.75. By not increasing our gaming tax rate and collecting more revenue from these corporations to support our public schools, colleges, and universities, we are helping to fund these other states’ public schools, colleges, and universities.

Let’s put Nevada public education first!  Please, Mr. Wynn, may we have the 8% you pay in New Jersey and Mississippi?

If you missed Governor Gibbons’ broadcast last night, you can read the text of the 2010 “State of the State” message here (.pdf) or here (website).

NFA Advisor draws your attention to the Gibbons plan for protecting teachers’ salaries: the Education Gift certificate.

“You can use the gift certificate to donate money to a non-profit organization that will make sure your money is spent ONLY on teachers’ salaries. For those of you who can afford to help our teachers, I encourage you do it.”

Dear Governor, with 140,000 Nevadans already out of work and 90,000 more (including teachers and other public servants) projected to join them over the next 18 months, with a 4.6 percent decline in personal income and a massive decrease in home values, just whom do you suppose can still afford to give charity to teachers?

Well, the Nevada mining industry continues to earn record-breaking high profits. Maybe these multi-national companies will donate money to keep our public education afloat.

The bigger issue here is ideology. Do we believe that funding public education is the privilege of the wealthy who can afford to make charitable donations (and receive federal income tax credits/subsidies) for doing so? Or do we accept that, because we give every citizen the right to vote, funding public education is the obligation of every citizen and that fair taxation, including taxation of multi-state corporations who bring business here with the expectation that we will provide them an educated workforce, represents the cost of providing this public service to ourselves and our posterity?

Clearly, our governor believes that Nevada public education, like playwright Tennessee Williams’ Blanche DuBois, should depend on the kindness of strangers. What a helluva way to raise our children and to make our state more attractive to new businesses.