Redistricting plan finalized

Friday, June 15, 2001 | 2 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn said this morning he was pleased that lawmakers approved a reapportionment plan and passed most of the bills he sent over to a special session in less than 14 hours.

"I know the atmosphere was very charged over there, but in the final analysis they accomplished in about 14 hours what many people thought would take several days," Guinn told the Sun.

"This shows what you can do when you're required to move with dispatch to get the people's business done."

In ordering the special session, the 17th in Nevada history, Guinn had urged lawmakers to finish their business within 24 hours.

Guinn sent the lawmakers 28 bills passed after the regular session's deadline for reapproval at the special session.

He said there appeared to be one major casualty -- Assembly Bill 661, a measure that allows large users such as casinos and mining companies to seek new sources of electricity other than Nevada Power Co. in Las Vegas and Sierra Pacific Power Co. in Reno.

Lawmakers took no action on the bill, which also had a provision that would have allocated about $10 million a year to help low income families pay their power bills.

Guinn said he was told that lawmakers weren't planning to send him the bill for his signature, which means the measure is dead.

The governor, however, said he hoped to sign Assembly Bill 460, another bill lawmakers declined to act on during the special session.

AB460, which Guinn needs to balance the state budget, would send all of the money collected from a 6 percent car rental tax -- about $23 million over the next two years -- to the state. The money would go toward pay raises for schoolteachers.

Both bills, which needed a two-thirds majority, were not acted upon because legislative leaders feared Assembly Republicans, angry over the reapportionment plan, would stick together as a block and vote them down.

Guinn said the leaders told him the brunt of AB460 had been passed prior to the midnight deadline of the regular session and would hold up to a court challenge.

The reapportionment measure, which gives more power to Southern Nevada, keeps the Legislature at 21 senators and 42 Assembly members and carves up three congressional districts, one Democrat, one Republican and a third evenly split among both parties.

The Board of Education remains at 10 members, but the Board of Regents is expanded to 13 seats.

Reapportionment, which occurs every 10 years following a national census, was necessary because of Nevada's huge population growth, primarily in Clark County.

Lawmakers approved the redistricting plan just before 11 p.m. after spending most of the 13-hour session trying to appease angry members of the minority parties in both houses who felt left out of the decision-making process.

The deal was negotiated by Assembly Democrats and Senate Republicans, who control the two houses, following a night of negotiating that ended hours before the start of the special session, the first since 1989.

Assembly Republicans were upset because the redistricting forced several of them to run against each other, and Senate Democrats were appalled that the plan did not include a promised open seat in their house for the fast-growing Hispanic community.

Prior to the vote, as word spread of the unhappiness over the deal, Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, who participated in the earlier negotiations, said: "This is going to be an ugly day."

Republicans vented their frustration on the floor when the massive reapportionment bill came up for a vote.

"There is no fairness to what has been done here," Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, told his colleagues during the vote. "This is a poor way to do business."

Earlier in the day, Assemblyman Greg Brower, R-Reno, complained to Guinn in the hallways of the Legislature that the deal was hurting Assembly Republicans.

Brower later told the Sun that he felt Senate Republican leaders were selling out their counterparts in the Senate.

Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, charged on the floor that special interests played too big a role in drawing up the new districts.

High-powered gaming industry lobbyists often were consulted during the negotiations.

"I wonder what in the heck is wrong with this Legislature," Tiffany said. "I do not like how this process is run."

The measure passed the Assembly by a 24-17 vote along party lines, though two rural Democrats sided with the 15 Republicans.

In the Senate, reapportionment was approved by a 12-9 vote, again along party lines.

Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, who has been at the Legislature for nearly 30 years, said he found the redistricting process "appalling."

Neal, a leader in the black community, said his new district was drawn up in such a way that a "person of color would have a tough time getting elected."

The outspoken senator, who described the 2001 Legislature as one of the worst he's ever seen, said he was considering filing a lawsuit to challenge the reapportionment plan.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, described the redistricting as "partisanship at its worst."

She said Republican leaders drew up the lines in a way that ensures their party will control the Senate for the next decade.

Neal also attacked the stepped-up role of special interests at the Legislature, primarily the gaming lobbyists whom he called the "fat boys."

"Lobbyists should not control the process," Neal said. "This session got out of hand. A lot of people were left standing on the sidelines."

At the close of the regular session, gaming lobbyists were observed on the floor of the Senate giving directions to some senators.

Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, another maverick lawmaker, told his colleagues they should adopt rules to control lobbyists.

"We need to regain control over the legislative process and return public trust in this institution," he said.

Afterwards, Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said steps will be taken prior to the next Legislature to keep lobbyists off the floor when the Senate is in session.

Raggio called the 2001 Legislature a "very tough session," but he defended the reapportionment decisions made during the special session.