Letter: Special session needed for crisis

Tuesday, March 26, 2002 | 8:29 a.m.

Recently I heard Gov. Kenny Guinn speaking on the radio. He said that if Nevada Power gets the rate increase it is seeking he would call an emergency meeting of the Legislature to extend the period of years that the rate hike could be paid.

I guess this means that the Legislature can be called into special session when something really important happens and a change is needed. This sounds good to me.

Just before talking about the Nevada Power rate hike request, Guinn was discussing the severe medical malpractice problem in Nevada. He said that he wanted to start a state-run malpractice insurance program that would be a short-term solution until the Legislature could meet next year and try to solve the problem.

Wait a minute. Is the Nevada Power rate hike request so important that we would need a special legislative session, but the loss of virtually all of our doctors isn't? Something is wrong in this scenario. Is the governor's head on upside-down?

The governor of this state should have proposed corrections to state tort laws and should have called the Legislature into special session weeks ago. Is Guinn waiting for Nevada to be without any competent doctors? If he has a medical emergency, where is he going to go for medical help? This is really the question that I would like answered.

ROBERT DUBIN