Carson plays Wooster two more times between now at the regional tournaments that start next week.  Carson plays Wooster Thursday 3:30pm at Carson, and again Friday at Carson at 3:30pm.  Although the next two games are regular league plays (they also beat McQueen in a non-league game on Monday) Carson has already won a birth in the playoffs next week.

A softening economy and people tightening the rubber band around their checkbooks are being blamed for a 3.9% drop in gaming wins in Nevada during the month of February. A quick trip around the state: Las Vegas Strip down 3.1%, Reno down 1.4%, Sparks down 4%, South Lake Tahoe down 7.5%, but Carson City rose by nearly 4%.

The drop in gaming revenues has also punched a $50 million hole in the state’s budget for the current fiscal year.

Gaming Control Board figures show in the month of February that slots were down 2.1%, table games down 6.9%, poker and other live games down 10.3%, craps down 1.6%. Roulette was up 20.8%

Sports books were also down…losing $6.8 million in February.

Despite the downturn, “Big Gaming” continues to reap record profits that they invest not only in Nevada but also around the country and the world, money, that critics say, would be more properly spent to help support the state and the people that make Big Gaming big in Nevada.

Meanwhile, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) is one of the groups working to address the dismal fiscal situation of the state.

“We need to take a hard look at the revenue side of the state budget,” said PLAN Executive Director Bob Fulkerson. “Soup to nuts - what we’ve got is fundamentally flawed and totally dysfunctional.
“We need to look at what our major industries are contributing and what they’re taking out of the state. We need to look at personal and corporate contributions. And we need to have a discussion that goes beyond knee-jerk slogans and seriously addresses the state’s obvious needs.”

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It’s been a long time in coming…getting a wide rainbow of performing and graphic arts front and center with the community. But happened it has, and now they’re looking for residents to keep up the momentum with the creation of the town’s first-ever Carson City Cultural Commission.

   Governor Gibbons told news reporters this afternoon that despite the state’s pot of red ink rising to $900 million, he’s still not talking state worker layoffs, for now.  But he is talking further budget cuts, although he says he wants to soften those cuts on K-12 education, public safety and prisons.

Gibbons told reporters that budget discussions with ranking state lawmakers, including top Democrats, are focused on getting through the next year without layoffs or crippling cuts to k-12 schools,  universities, community colleges and public safety.   Gibbons says after further meetings with lawmakers, he’ll announce what those cuts will be and to which state division.

State Budget Director Andrew Clinger told News Carson City that there might be an additional 3% cut to selective departments, including Health and Human Services but that has not been finalized.  He said the bulk of the cuts will hopefully come from major state construction projects that have not yet been started, like improvements to four state prisons and the so-called state University Health Sciences program.  No major highway projects, however, would be affected.   Clinger said if they can find another $52 million for next year’s budget, then there won’t be any layoffs.  But if economic conditions force it, then those layoffs would start with Health and Human Services.  He added that they’re hoping that $4-6 billion in mega-resort construction projects on the ‘Vegas Strip will boost Clark County’s tax contribution to the state budget to help turn things around.

Again, talks resume between Gibbons and lawmakers with a final set of cuts and projections within two to three weeks.

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Sales tax collections fell like a stone in January, another consecutive month of revenue declines that began last fall. The trend only worsens what has degraded into a nail-biting wait-and-see approach to the rest of this year’s municipal budget and next.