So our illustrious “governor” gave a State of the State speech last night.  And the state?  Is not real good.  Nevada is in trouble right now.  The budget is a nightmare.  And the governor suggested last night that perhaps one way out of the mess is to give higher education a 35% cut.  And with the University here in Reno being the largest state school in Nevada, I guess we can see which school would take the biggest hit.

Let’s just ignore for a minute the common knowledge that in a bad economy, people go back to school.  With that being the case, is it REALLY smart to cut 35% of the budget for said school?  To force a school to raise tuition costs to compensate?  Lay off employees when they could otherwise be used and needed?  Cut pay for people who desperately need that pay in this world of rising costs? Raise the cost of health insurance premiums that are already astronomical?

In a word: UGH.

Budget cuts suck, plain and simple.  And I know it’s never easy to cut anywhere.  But 35%?  OUCH.

So maybe we need to think about getting out?  It’s always been something we’ve talked about.  We’ve never really wanted to stay in Nevada forever.  But it’s also something we’ve never really taken seriously.  Now though?  Maybe it’s time to take it seriously.  Maybe we need to start looking somewhere else.  I’m sure no state is doing all that great in this recession, but surely there are other states that are handling it a tad better than Nevada is.  Surely there are states that aren’t cutting higher education so drastically.

The idea is to start with the bordering states and move out from there, in terms of searching.  Ignoring Arizona because it’s hot and I don’t do hot and ignoring California too because… yeah.  Right.  So Oregon, Idaho and Utah.  Then Washington, Montana and parts east.

Who knows.  Maybe we’ll stay in Nevada until we’re old and gray.  And maybe we’ll leave here within the year.  Who knows?  But I will say that the budget crisis here is making me awful nervous.   We RELY on Kile’s income and if it were gone?  We’d be SCREWED.  Quite simply, we need stablility more than we need to live in Reno right now.