Gibbons promises to use taxes against Buckley

Gov. Jim Gibbons on Tuesday repeated his opposition to the tax increases passed by the Legislature and said if he ends up running for re-election against Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, he will keep the voters focused on those tax hikes.

"The Buckley-Horsford tax increase of 2009 is the largest tax increase in the history of the state of Nevada and is an insult to the people," Gibbons said. "I think the public is going to keep this in the forefront. People paying their taxes are going to keep this in the forefront."

If the two face each other in the 2010 elections, he said, her voting record will be prominently featured in his campaign.

"I'm going to remind the public every day of her biggest tax increase in history."

He said he remains convinced Nevada needed a smaller, more efficient government, not more spending.

Gibbons said he was willing to work with lawmakers but, instead, they chose to develop their tax proposals behind closed doors, "excluding the people and media, hiding in back rooms doing sweetheart deals."

"The public who is footing the bill needs to be informed," Gibbons said. "Instead, what they got was a late night deal that was cast upon them."

Buckley said those were "tough decisions made by both parties that were right for the state.

"The very idea of closing down UNR or UNLV, massive layoffs of teachers, knocking children and the elderly off health insurance " those would have been the wrong decisions for the state," she said. "So someone had to act like a grown-up."