CARSON CITY – State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford said “there will be cuts” to Nevada’s government, but that “new revenue” will definitely be part of the solution to the state’s budget crisis. In an video interview (watch out, Martin Scorsese, we’re coming for you!) the new majority leader criticized Gov. Jim Gibbons’s budget, which he said was not really balanced, because of mistakes in the estimates of how much tax revenue will be generated by a yet-to-be-approved room tax proposal OK’d by voters in November.

In addition, Horsford noted Nevada is in the first tier of state’s eligible to receive stimulus money, because of its high unemployment rate. To get that money, however, the state will have to restore dollars cut by Gibbons in the budget he presented to the Legislature.

The North Las Vegas Democrat also echoed President Barack Obama, saying Nevada needs a government that works, regardless of its size. And he endorsed the idea of an annual session of the Legislature to deal with the state budget, to avoid problems created by trying to predict tax revenue for a two-year cycle. Check out key excerpts from our interview here: