Time running out quickly on legislative budget committees

Tuesday, May 25, 1999 | 11:29 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Lawmakers are scrambling to complete a final version of the state's $3.2 billion budget designed to see Nevada through the next two fiscal years.

In order for the Legislature to adjourn before Monday's deadline -- the 120th day of the 1999 session -- the Assembly and the Senate must reconcile several remaining differences over Gov. Kenny Guinn's spending proposal.

As the final full week of the session opened, there were more than 200 bills still in both the Senate and Assembly finance committees. The biggest budgetary speed bumps involved funding for the state Ethics Commission and reorganization of the state Transportation Services Authority and the state Taxicab Authority.

The Ethics Commission controversy started when the Assembly passed a bill changing the organization of the panel, folding a bill by Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, into one backed by the governor and already passed by the Senate.

The plan gives the Ethics Commission two more members -- increasing it from six to eight -- and adds an executive director and a legal counsel.

But the bill removes 1997 "truth in campaigning" requirements that Giunchigliani and others have said present an unconstitutional roadblock to free political speech.

The Senate wants the new legal counsel position in the Ethics Commission's organization, while the Assembly proposal includes the position in the attorney general's office. Also, the Ways and Means Committee added a part-time computer specialist that the Senate Finance Committee has yet to approve.

The other stumbling block includes both the budgets from the Transportation Services Authority and the Taxicab Authority.

The sticking points involve a bill that would reorganize and change the responsibilities of both agencies.

Currently the Taxicab Authority is responsible for regulating more than 1,000 cabs in Clark County. The Transportation Services Authority regulates towing companies, buses, movers, limousines and all taxis not in Las Vegas.

Under the Assembly's version of Senate Bill 491, different taxi authorities would be created for the northern and southern parts of the state. The northern version would regulate Washoe County while the southern Transportation Authority would deal just with Clark County. Both bodies would regulate taxis and limousines.

Funding would be generated by driver fees of up to 20 cents a trip, plus $100 a year for each taxi and $500 a year for each limousine a company uses.