Will Nevada Gamblers Colleges Be Next for a Bailout?
From the indispensable Inside Higher Ed, a strong indication of where bailout-mania is heading (which is everywhere):
Which may be why [Jim] Rogers [chancellor of Nevada higher ed], in a speech at a news conference Monday, turned his attention to another potential source of funds: the U.S. treasury.
His message is simple: Nevadans pay $4 billion a year more in taxes than the state receives in federal payments of various sorts (it ranks 47th among the states in the latter, according to Rogers). At a time when the government is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into efforts to help troubled institutions, notably Wall Street financial institutions and other banks, "It seems to me that the survival of Nevada's citizens' fundamental way of life is just as essential as the survival of big business pocketbooks."
In 2005, according to the Tax Foundation, Nevadans received 65 cents for every dollar they paid to the feds. That's no justification for a bailout, but it is nice to see educators in the ballpark when using any sort of figure.
