Sandoval stands by increasing taxes

By Ray Hagar, Reno Gazette-Journal

Gov. Brian Sandoval has a message — or challenge — to those who criticize his budget, which includes $1.1 billion in new and extended taxes:

So what’s your plan to finance Nevada’s future — especially its struggling education system?

“I have put my marker out there in terms of where I want the state to go and where we have to invest when it comes to k-through-12, higher education, health and human services and public safety,” Sandoval said during an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal on Wednesday.

“And for those who don’t want to do that, then they need to do the same thing,” Sandoval said. “They need to say, ‘This is where I am going to cut.’ Because right now, they get to say, ‘I have 12 votes not to raise your taxes.’ But there are consequences with that.”

The “12 votes” refers to a statement Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, R-Las Vegas, made to the Republican Men’s Club of Northern Nevada on Tuesday.

Read the whole story