It is a strange thing that we ask a person who has been governor only for a few days to give us a full report on the "State of the State."  I wish we'd just call it what it is – the gubernatorial legislative spending list. But whatever its name, it is nice to have a good idea of what to expect moving forward. Here are a few of my takeaways from the speech.

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It is remarkable how downright Republican Gov. Steve Sisolak sounded in the beginning of the speech, reminding his more liberal party mates in attendance that "businesses are propelling our economy" (as opposed to government programs). He promised no new taxes and vowed to reduce regulatory and administrative burdens on small business owners, who he specifically praised. As a guy who just entered the private sector with a small business, I'm glad to hear it.

The no new tax promise was even deeper praise for the work of the preceding Republican-led government, with Sisolak expressly (and wisely) saying our current revenue structure ain't broke and doesn't need fixin'. It's too bad he didn't give specific credit where it was due, but that's politics. Still, the admission that a conservative fiscal approach actually drives economic growth and leads to more revenue without raising taxes was a refreshing one, particularly as out-and-out socialists are out there plotting to take over the Democratic Party.

I just hope he remembers those words as the fringes of his party try to pull in the opposite direction in the coming months.

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Peppered throughout the speech were details of his budget, almost all of which were items already proposed by former Gov. Sandoval. In fact, the new governor made only minor changes to the proposals of his predecessor. Once again, the lack of credit where it was due rankles a bit, but then again, it's amazing how much we accomplish when we aren't worrying about who gets credit for success.

I'm sure there are other conservatives out there upset with any (or all) of the announced spending, but modest raises for public employees are not unreasonable, nor are many of the other programs the new governor mentioned. As long as they are presented within the confines of a balanced budget without tax hikes, spending money to keep and retain quality public servants will be worth it in the end.

The problem wasn't in the specifics, but in the vagueness of other spending that would surely upset his inherited apple cart.

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The announcement that he will push to expand collective bargaining for state workers is terribly unfortunate and if passed, will wind up costing those same small businesses Sisolak just got done praising a ton of additional money in the long term — and will, ironically, lead to less responsive government.

I worked for government entities of various kinds for over two decades. I worked with great (and not so great) folks in each place, but of those government jobs, the one with most consistently excellent and dedicated people with the best leadership was my Navy service – and of course, military members are not unionized. I am very proud of the work I did on behalf of my fellow citizens and always grateful I was never under the thumb of a union rep while I did my serving.

When and where I have experienced public employee unions, I have found that, as a general rule, they protect the worst employees and hold back the best ones. Unions are creatures of raw political power for a select few insiders more than they are for workers' rights, as a whole. In the public sector, they undemocratically take away the ability of voters to hold their own government to account at the ballot box.

Good employees stay and excel where they are valued, and there is nothing that tells a motivated, hard worker she is NOT valued like seeing a lazy or incompetent colleague in the next cubicle getting paid the same amount as she is. And yet, that's exactly what collective bargaining gives us. Public employee unions make it next to impossible to clean out the dead weight, and every other worker in the office has to carry that extra load, killing morale. Individual talent and innovation is lost, and supervisors and managers become powerless to supervise or manage.

Pandering to union bosses is great politics for a traditional Democrat. But it's a terrible way to have efficient, innovative, or accountable government.

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The promise to return to old prevailing wage rules is equally distressing. Asking taxpayers to fork over millions of dollars more than necessary for government building projects is a flabbergasting thing, and it will be local government budgets feeling the pinch.

The argument is that buildings built under artificially inflated prevailing wage rules are somehow better constructed or safer. But look around you – do we have an epidemic of other buildings collapsing or otherwise falling apart, just because the builder couldn't use the NRS to add 20 percent to the price of his bid? Of course not. What we do have, though, is an epidemic of not enough schools being built because we can't afford to build them, and not enough spending on other priorities, like mental health treatment.

If you care about building more schools, greater access to education and freeing tax dollars up to get "great educator[s] in the front of the classroom," you cannot also be in favor of rolling back the modest prevailing wage reforms of the Sandoval era.

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I wonder what magic wand Sisolak has that he can force Donald Trump's Justice Department to conduct FBI background checks for gun purchases, when they've already refused to do it?  

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If you truly believe that climate change is an existential threat, then you will embrace any energy source that does not produce carbon emissions. Currently, the only such energy source that realistically can produce the affordable, plentiful, and reliable energy our society needs is nuclear, which while cleaner than coal, still produces waste which must be stored somewhere. Opposing a storage facility for said waste only impedes development of more carbon emission-free energy production.

Gov. Sisolak, therefore, can be an anti-climate change warrior, or an anti-Yucca Mountain activist – but contrary to his attempted position in his speech, he can't be both.

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It was almost as if two men gave one speech — one a relatively conservative pragmatist who is smart enough to follow the lead of his successful predecessor regardless of the party difference between the two men, and one a partisan who threw every possible unrealistic or self-contradictory piece of rhetorical red meat to his political base.

We can only hope for the sake of our state's continued economic development and success that the former version of the governor dominates his party during this year's legislative session, and beyond.

Orrin Johnson has been writing and commenting on Nevada and national politics since 2007. He started with an independent blog, First Principles, and was a regular columnist for the Reno Gazette-Journal from 2015-2016. By day, he is an attorney in Reno. Follow him on Twitter @orrinjohnson, or contact him at [email protected].