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RENO - This is Part 2 of Governor Gibbons' State of the State speech, delivered live to northern Nevadans on Monday evening. The following edited version of the Governor's entire address highlights key issues of greatest import to taxpayers, voters and residents.

... I made you a promise. I guaranteed you I would not raise your taxes. Unfortunately, in the politics of today, such promises are a dime a dozen. But mine is not just a promise, it is a principle. In this tough economy, we cannot ask our citizens to pay new taxes. They have nothing left to give. We cannot ask our businesses to pay more taxes. Many of them are struggling just to stay open. The only thing we can do – the right thing to do – is what you did at your kitchen table tonight. We must cut our state spending. We must reduce the size of state government....

[That] means limiting government to its core functions. ... Businesses do not exist solely for the purpose of funding government programs...people are entitled to keep the money they earn and do not have to forfeit those earnings to some bureaucrat who decides that you are not spending your money correctly. I HAVE KEPT MY WORD. I REAFFIRM MY WORD TO YOU TONIGHT, AS LONG AS I SERVE AS YOUR GOVERNOR, I WILL NOT RAISE TAXES.

... Just as Nevada’s real estate market inflated in value to an unsustainable level, so has our state government. Nevada’s tax base, Nevada’s population and Nevada’s job market can no longer pay for the bloated government services which were funded when Nevada’s economy was booming.

... With 13 percent of our citizens unemployed, Nevada cannot continue to fund government as we know it today. Society is changing. State government must change with it. We must focus on the important services which ensure life, health, education and public safety.... We will have to eliminate [the] programs...we simply can no longer afford. We must cut government spending to ease the burden on our citizens and our businesses.

Despite the promise of economic recovery through the federal stimulus package, Washington has failed to help Nevada. Nevada ranks near the bottom of per capita federal spending, and we rank dead last in per capita stimulus funds. Although there is a perception that Nevada has clout with this Administration, Washington has turned a deaf ear to our problems.

As your Governor, I wake up every morning determined to get Nevadans off the unemployment lines and back into their homes. We can’t rely on Washington, D.C. to lead us out of this crisis.... We can’t lean on county and city governments. They are struggling with their own revenue shortfalls....

... A core function of Nevada state government is education. Our K-12 schools and the Nevada System of Higher Education make up 54% of all General Fund spending. But we can’t solve a $1 billion hole in a $6 billion budget if half of that budget is off the table....

...Nevada taxpayers spend billions of dollars on education.... The Nevada Department of Education recently announced 142 of the 613 public schools in Nevada qualify as the “worst” schools in the nation. That means 23 percent of our public schools are failing, [so] what we are doing doesn’t work....Throwing more money at this system won’t change anything. Continuing to allow unions to dictate Nevada’s education policy doesn’t work.

We need true reform. We need change. We need to rethink how we deliver public education in Nevada. In the current school year, student population has dropped. We now have a golden opportunity to catch our breath and rethink how we can best provide education to our children.... I request the Nevada Legislature give my Education Reform plan a fair hearing in the upcoming Special Session.

... I am asking state employees to do more with less. I am asking our teachers to do more with less. I am asking our Legislators and Constitutional Officers to do more with less. I am demanding our programs work or be eliminated. And I will ask our citizens to accept less from government and to take more personal responsibility. Government must make sacrifices, just like your family and just like our businesses. There are no easy answers. Anything easy has already been done.

We have to make hard choices, and we need your support.... We are in the middle of the greatest economic crisis of our generation. It won’t last forever, and there will be a recovery. Not tomorrow. Not next week. And things may get worse before they get better. But we will survive. We will overcome. And we will emerge with a state government that is leaner and smarter....

...I am convinced better days and brighter futures are ahead for all of us. Together we’ll pull through this. We share the same spirit. We are Battle Born. We are One Nevada....

This article is part of the series: Elections 2010: What color will Nevada bleed?

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