VICTOR JOECKS: Nevada government doesn’t need a federal bailout. Sisolak’s budget proves it.

If you want to understand the disparity between Nevada’s public and private sector, just look at Gov. Steve Sisolak’s budget proposal.

On Monday night, Sisolak released highlights of his spending plan for the next two years. He provided more details at Tuesday’s State of the State address.

The governor spent months implying that Nevada government was on the verge of fiscal collapse, absent a federal bailout. I told you two weeks ago, however, that Nevada wasn’t facing a budget crisis.

Now the numbers confirm the accuracy of my conclusion. After last summer’s special session, legislatively approved general fund spending was $8.35 billion for the biennium. Nevada budgets are on a two-year cycle.

For the upcoming biennium, Sisolak proposes spending $8.69 billion. That’s a $300 million increase over actual spending. But total spending is going to be even higher than that. K-12 education will receive more than $450 million from the federal government. Higher education is going to collect more than $100 million. Sisolak didn’t include these funds in his budget, because regulations on spending those funds haven’t been released yet.

That will push total spending to more than $9.2 billion. For reference, in 2019 and before the coronavirus pandemic, the Legislature approved $8.88 billion in spending for the current biennium.

Not surprisingly, public employees do extremely well under Sisolak’s plan, especially compared to the devastated private sector. His budget eliminates state worker furloughs that started earlier this month. It provides funding for a 2 percent yearly raise for teachers. There’s more money for retirement contributions for state employees.

Rather than boosting pay for the people least affected by the pandemic and his job-destroying lockdowns, Sisolak should propose tax rebates to help beleaguered families and businesses.

Instead, he’s cherry-picking numbers to paint this budget in as negative a light as possible. Sisolak’s office presented the budget as a 2 percent reduction from the 2019-2020 fiscal year. But if administration officials compared it to actual spending in the current fiscal year, they’d have to acknowledge that the governor’s plan boosts spending.

This dishonest spin is a slap in the face to the many private-sector businesses that can only dream of such healthy budgets. Sisolak currently limits many businesses to 25 percent capacity. That makes it difficult to bring in revenue. Nevada’s 10.1 percent unemployment rate is tied for second-highest in the country. The convention businesses has been devastated and will likely recover more slowly than other industries.

Sisolak has a financial incentive to cry poverty. He wants even more money from the federal government. He’s spent months demanding a bailout.

If that federal bailout bill does pass, don’t be surprised if Nevada’s two-year spending plan eventually tops $10 billion. Don’t be surprised if much of that money goes to boosting the pay of government employees instead of helping private-sector workers who’ve lost their jobs or to kids facing steep learning losses. After all, government unions — not children — are one of the most powerful special-interest groups within the Democratic Party.

And don’t be surprised if these same elected officials claim in 2023 that Nevada is facing a new budget crisis. The one-time money they could use to boost employee pay to artificially high and unsustainable levels likely won’t be available again.

What’s happening now highlights the difference between government and the private sector. Both prosper during times of strong economic growth. But when a downturn comes, private-sector businesses have to shrink, re-evaluate and innovate. In contrast, state government can raise taxes or — in this case — beg for money from Washington. Government employee unions then demand politicians shield their members from what’s happening to workers in the private sector. Repeat for a few decades and you end up with public employees making more than those in the private sector.

Neither Nevada’s government nor public employees need a bailout. Just look at Sisolak’s budget.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.