Editorial: Pork-barrel items need oversight

Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2001 | 9:47 a.m.

The Nevada Legislature meets once every two years. And at the tail end of these legislative sessions, in what practically has become a rite of spring, lawmakers divvy up any surplus money for one-shot funding giveaways that sometimes are nothing more than pork-barrel projects. Yet as the Sun's Cy Ryan noted in a Sunday story, unlike the case with state agencies that are subject to legislative audits, there almost never is any follow-up requirement to ensure that either local governments or private groups spend this money appropriately. For that matter, there rarely is serious debate about the necessity of these projects -- often the plum appropriations go to legislative leaders because of deference from lawmakers low on the totem pole.

Certainly many one-time expenditures defy the label "pork barrel," with the programs often deserving of government assistance. For instance, a worthy appropriation was the $2.8 million that the 1999 Legislature approved to help build affordable housing in West Las Vegas. Of the one-shot appropriations that the 1999 Legislature authorized, no one has suggested that money has been spent inappropriately. Still, every one of these appropriations should require accountability -- they are significant outlays of taxpayer dollars.

This isn't a partisan issue. Democrats and Republicans both lust after this end-of-session money, which allows them to either reward a special interest group or bring home the bacon in a bid to impress the voters in their districts. Indeed, Republican lawmakers from Northern Nevada, who like to portray themselves as the epitome of fiscal conservatism, have proven quite adept over the years at scooping up the late-session money.

No one should be fooled into thinking that pork-barrel projects are going to disappear. But there should be a change in how the money is tracked once it leaves the Legislature. The new speaker of the Assembly, Democrat Richard Perkins of Henderson, says there should be accountability, possibly quarterly or semi-annual reports to the Legislature. This is an idea that is long overdue. The Legislature should impose requirements to ensure that money is being spent properly.