A triumph of leadership

Wednesday, June 1, 2011 | 4:10 p.m.

No one is more cynical about the Legislature and especially the endgame than I. But after covering every one since 1987, I don’t recall any that have ended with the kind of collective rising to the occasion as the 76th has.

I have seen many gritted teeth at the “We are the World” press conferences. Bt the one Wednesday afternoon was a real as they get in politics.

Yes, the serendipity of that state Supreme Court decision changed what had become a dicey dynamic that might have resulted in a train wreck. But once Gov. Brian Sandoval decided that even if that ruling could be sui generis – only affecting $62 million – and decided not to take any chances and break his pledge by lifting the sunsets, the session proceeded to a virtual resolution in a mere five days.

How?

As one veteran lobbyist, who has been critical of Sandoval, put it, “I have never seen a governor have the personal involvement as this governor did. He was not just a facilitator but a mediator. He personally started negotiations, his persuasiveness, his follow-through, his attention to detail.”

Another negotiator put it this way: “This was the single, greatest example of give and take, consensus-building I have seen. There is meaningful reform here.”

After a session of back and forth, some of it tinged with nastiness, state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford and Sandoval forged a productive working relationship that paid off. With Speaker John Oceguera negotiating with Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea and term-limited Senate Minority Leader Mike McGinness always willing to play ball, this went remarkably smoothly – only the construction defect blowup slowed everything down, if only for a day.

It helped that there was no money to squabble over for pet projects – a k a pork, or the usual end-of-session Christmas tree. But lawmakers and the governor and his staff worked into the night every night, with lawmakers in the Legislative Building until 2 AM the last two nights. “I have never seen a group work so hard,” said one insider with knowledge. Said another: “The game-playing stopped.”

There will be brickbats from the right – they didn’t go far enough, they should have cut more – and the left – why didn’t they get mining, and why not tax reform? But there is substance in much of this reform, from the education components to the collective bargaining changes.

The budgets really were not that far apart -- $300 million is, as one wag put it, “budget dust.”

This was not an easy pill for the Democrats to swallow on the reforms – a Democratic Legislature passing teacher tenure and last-in-first-out reforms! – just as extending the sunsets was castor oil for many Republicans.

The votes are there. “Far more Republicans will vote for this than you think,” said one insider. There are four senators who attended the celebratory presser – Ben Kieckhefer, Joe Hardy, Dean Rhoads and McGinness. And in the Assembly, there are plenty of Republican votes.

There may be flare-ups before Monday, but this deal is done. And as cynical as I want to be and usually am by this point, this has been the least ugly finish I have seen in 25 years.

(The actual line-by-line accounting is posted elsewhere on this bog.)