So it seems the county’s jail is so full, there’s simply no room for misdemeanor offenders like vandals and prostitutes. It raises the legitimate question of how many non-violent offenders are currently incarcerated at the jail, but that’s just one of many side issues to this tale. (It was reported in the Review-Journal today.)

“We’ve come to a situation where those crimes are ignored. Prostitution is raising its ugly head to the point it will start to hurt our tourism business,” said Sheriff Bill Young.

We’d gently and respectfully suggest to the sheriff that prostitution is a significant part of our tourism business, but once again, it’s a side issue.

Young suggests building a large tent prison for misdemeanor offenders out by the county’s sewage treatment facility at Vegas Valley Drive and Flamingo Road, so judges could actually sentence offenders to incarceration, rather than fines, which Young contends are ineffective. It’s a lot cheaper than building even more jail space downtown, which will likely fill up as fast as the jail’s last expansion, begun in 1996 at a cost of $125 million.

And Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid agrees: “This is a unique solution. This makes a lot of sense. We listened to the sheriff and we’re going to support him.”

Again, with heaping piles of respect and a cherry on top, building more jail space is not a unique solution and it doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless you’re deliberately suspending your intellect. You can build all the jails you want, and hire the cops, judges, prosecutors, public defenders, jailers and support workers to fill them, and still not solve a damn thing.

(Keep in mind, we’re talking about misdemeanor, non-violent offenders here, not murders, rapists, robbers, confidence men or misbehaving corporate executives and House majority leaders, who should be locked away for a long time.)

A truly unique solution that really does make a lot of sense is this: Legalize prostitution, and watch 98 percent of the problems related to it vanish overnight.

With legal prostitution, women would not be abused or enslaved, but rather work as contractors and make a good share of the profits. The risk of disease would be low, as they would submit to monthly health checks. Customers would be safer, not having to troll back alleys or worry about being rolled for their cash. The entire scheme would be regulated and taxed, and disputes would be settled peacefully.

We didn’t just make that up, either: It happens every single day in many Nevada counties where prostitution is legal today.

Why won’t it happen? Because the law enforcement industrial complex depends on certain victimless crimes (think drugs) to keep its ranks employed, to keep buying or seizing new toys from “criminals” and, worst of all, because it’s an easy mark. Instead, we build more jails and assign cops to arrest prostitutes who could otherwise be responding to real crimes (including, by the way, vandalism).

Thus far, only Mayor Oscar Goodman has had the temerity to suggest legalizing prostitution, and only because he’s outrageously popular. Tellingly, however, even he hasn’t had the gumption to actually push for it. There are limits, you understand, that even Goodman must obey.

But not us: We at Various Things & Stuff have been saying this for years. Too bad bright guys like Bill Young and Rory Reid aren’t listening.

The Taxcapomaniacs had reason to cheer on Thursday. Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, who by no coincidence whatsoever is running for Congress from Reno and looking to separate herself from the field, filed her Proposition 13-like property tax capping measure with the Secretary of State.

Angle’s measure, like its 1978 namesake in California, would cap property taxes at 2 percent per year until you sold your house, at which time it would be reassessed at market prices. It has the net effect of allowing longtime homeowners to pay sometimes radically different taxes than neighbors with the exact same house.

“We think it will be real popular with the people,” said Angle, using the creepy third-person royal “we” not uncommon to politicians. Or perhaps she’s talking about the voices in her head? In any case, she’s not wrong: It will will real popular with the people, unless they can be educated as to the net effects of the measure.

What net effects? Glad you asked. When you cap property taxes in Nevada, you reduce the stream of money flowing to local governments, like the city of Las Vegas or Clark County or the school district. Now, if those municipal agencies didn’t run things like the fire and police departments, local schools, local road building, sewers, water systems and a public hospital, well, that would be one thing. But since they do run all those things, capping property taxes caps the ability of local government to do the things that make our lives safer and better overall.

Don’t believe me? How’d you like to be living in hurricane-devastated New Orleans right now, where the morning paper tells of roving gangs of armed men who shoot at police and others who shoot at rescue helicopters, were there are no cops or firefighters? That’s what we thought.

New Orleans is an extreme example; nobody’s talking about rampant lawlessness here. But we will be talking about diminishing services, which is all right with Sharron Angle. Why? First, she knows that everybody is going to blame Sheriff Bill Young when there’s not enough cops, or the Clark County Commission for poor fire department response times. They’ll blame the Regional Transportation Commission when roads aren’t built or repaired fast enough. And they’ll blame the city of Las Vegas when they have to wait longer for building inspectors to sign off on that new house they finally saved enough money to buy.

They won’t blame Sharron Angle, who circulated Nevada’s Proposition 13. And they won’t blame themselves for voting for it. And that’s the second thing: Angle knows people are more than willing to demand services, but refuse to pay for them, especially recent immigrants or retirees, many of whom feel they’ve “paid their dues” in their home states, and want a free ride until the shuttle bus to the Big Early Bird Buffet in the Sky comes to pick them up.

For Angle, it’s a win-win. She truly does hate taxes, and the government financed thereby. But she also wants to be a congresswoman, and sees this tax restraint measure as the best way to do it. (Ironically enough, the man she wants to replace, U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, is no fan of taxes, either. But even he said that a Proposition 13 would be especially damaging to rural areas that make up the majority of the 2nd Congressional District, where Angle is running. Now, he may have said that because his wife, former Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons, is running to replace him in Congress, too, but it remains true nonetheless. Oh, for those of you who want a third option, Secretary of State Dean Heller is a candidate in the 2nd District.)

The Legislature did its best to cap taxes in 2005, with a unfortunately unconstitutional plan that caps rates at 3 percent for residential property and 8 percent for business and commercial property. But Angle, who couldn’t get a hearing for her plan in the Legislature, decreed even before the caps were passed that her way is better, and vowed to circulate the initiative no matter what happened. She’s true to her word, which is probably the nicest thing we can say about her.

Nevada voters will have a choice when they get Angle’s congressional vehicle shoved in their faces. Let’s hope they remember taxes pay for things they need and use everyday, and just say no to Proposition 13. If they don’t, they’ll only have themselves to blame for what happens.