E!! The True Conservative Story™

Patrick Gibbons, a staff researcher at the Nevada Policy Research Institute, has a good column on higher education costs in the Reno Gazette-Journal.  He cuts through the hype and runs down the realities of the present budget crunch and then offers some viable cost-saving solutions based on success stories from Virginia Tech and other universities. 

Gibbons says Nevada needs to become better educated about delivering efficient, effective higher education services so rising costs (and fees) do not exceed inflation and income growth.

Jim Rogers and others need to leave the Stone Age behind and get with a financially responsible, 21st century program. 

If you are interested in learning more or becoming involved in education reform in Nevada, consider attending this conference on Wednesday, January 14.  E!! will be there to listen and learn along with many business and community leaders.

Whoa, I almost missed this part of the story!  Check it out:

Bob Loux, Grand Propaganda Poobah for Nevada’s Nuclear Waste Policy Office, didn’t just redistribute funds in the form of unauthorized 2008 raises.  Apparently he’s been over-paying himself and his staff for years.

According to figures released by the governor’s office yesterday, Loux over-paid himself and his staff (i.e. exceeded his budgeted salary amount) for fiscal year 2007 by 6.69 percent.  This year, he exceeded his budget by 12.06 percent. And for next year, he was planning to exceed by 18.99 percent.

As for his personal salary, Loux was budgeted to be paid $114,088 this year but jacked up his salary more than 27 percent to $145,718.  He was budgeted to be paid $114,088 again next year (due to the statewide salary freeze) but set himself up to rake in $151,542 instead. 

Here’s the kicker:  These raises look to be about more than just the immediate extra cash.  Turns out Loux is eligible to retire on October 8, 2008.  And his already generous retirement package will/would reported be based on his ending salaries for his final three years of service. So it sure appears as if Loux was jacking up his salary in an effort to rip off taxpayers for higher retirement benefit over the next twenty or thirty years.

Assemblyman Morse Arberry was right on Tuesday.  Bob Loux shouldn’t just be fired; he ought to be prosecuted and thrown in jail.  AND stripped of his inflated retirement benefit.

(Hat Tip to Chuck Muth’s News and Views.)

Chuck Muth of Citizen Outreach has filed a complaint with the District Court of Carson City asking for the removal of Bob Loux – executive director for the Nuclear Waste Project Office of the Agency for Nuclear Projects for the State of Nevada – from office for malfeasance as provided for in NRS 283.440.

According to NRS 283.440, “Any person now holding…any office in this State…who is guilty of any malpractice or malfeasance in office, may be removed therefrom as hereinafter prescribed in this section.” 

According to a September 9, 2008, story by Cy Ryan of the Las Vegas Sun, Mr. Loux gave “himself and his staff an unauthorized 16 percent pay raise,” well above levels set by the Legislature for his office. 

On September 10, 2008, Brendan Riley of the Associated Press reported that Mr. Loux “apologized to the lawmakers’ Interim Finance Committee” (IFC) at the hearing on September 9, 2008, “for giving himself and other agency staffers unauthorized pay increases of up to 16 percent.” 

According to the AP report, Mr. Loux’s agency falls under the governor’s office, but Mr. Loux ”didn’t report the pay increases to the governor and instead signed the paperwork needed to authorize the higher pay.”

The raises came to light at the IFC meeting because Mr. Loux had overspent his budget – which in itself is malfeasance in office per NRS 353.260 (copy attached).

According to the statute, “It is unlawful for any state officer, commissioner, head of any state department or other employee, whether elected or appointed, to expend more money than the sum specifically appropriated by law for any such office, commission or department.”

Mr. Loux admitted to the IFC that he both overspent his budget and personally approved the unauthorized pay increases. “I take full responsibility for all of these errors,” Mr. Loux said.  “They were done by me.”

In an official letter to Mr. Bob Loux calling for his resignation, Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons noted that a review by the Budget Office discovered that “there has been a history of salaries in (Mr. Loux’s) office paid well over the amounts budgeted” and that “increases have been made without my approval and in violation of NRS 223.085.”

According to a report by Ed Vogel in the September 11, 2008, edition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Mr. Loux’s “salary manipulation” resulted in Mr. Loux receiving a salary of $151,542 per year – well in excess of his authorized, approved and budgeted salary of $114,088.

In addition, the Budget Office review referenced by Gov. Gibbons shows that Mr. Loux’s willful and unauthorized actions resulted in salary increases for every member of his staff in excess of 27 percent higher than budgeted for Fiscal Year 2008, and in excess of 32 percent higher than budgeted for Fiscal Year 2009.  In one case, one employee was scheduled by Mr. Loux to receive a salary increase next year which would have been more than 50 percent higher than budgeted.

According to Mr. Vogel’s story today, Mr. Loux has rejected Gov. Gibbons’ request for his resignation, saying “I am not going away.”

We’ll soon see!!