Editorial: Words are violating law’s spirit

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2002 | 9:04 a.m.

When people begin buying special Nevada license plates commemorating the 100th birthday of Las Vegas in 2005, the fees charged over and above the plates' regular fees will land in a dedicated fund that will help pay for the festivities associated with the city's centennial. It's an example of why Nevada allows special plates if at least 250 people will buy them. Funds are raised that augment state funding for worthy causes. Lake Tahoe, university sports, Las Vegas Springs, the arts -- these are some areas that benefit from the sales of special plates. Groups associated with the plates receive and manage the money. State funding continues at its obligated level, and the special funding from the sale of the license plates provides the niceties with no extra burden on taxpayers.

The benefit of veterans license plates, however, is being lost because of technical wording in the 1993 law that authorized them. The law, passed four years before the Legislature approved funding for the state's only veterans nursing home, says the money generated from the extra fees is for "the operation of veterans homes." The key word is operation, which the state is defining to mean the day-to-day expenses of the nursing home in Boulder City that opened this summer. Because of this definition, the funds generated from the sales of the veterans license plates are simply plowed into the state's general fund, from which the home's annual $4 million operating budget is drawn. That means the license-plate fees are offsetting some of the state's obligated expenses, rather than augmenting them.

State Sen. Terry Care of Las Vegas tried unsuccessfully to get the 2001 Legislature to change the law's wording, so that the extra funds could be used for just that -- the extras that would make life at the nursing home more pleasant for the veterans. State Sen. Ray Shaffer of North Las Vegas has drafted a bill that will compel the 2003 Legislature to again consider the change. We support this change, as the state has an obligation to provide the necessities at the veterans home. When they buy the special license plates, veterans want to know that their money is a donation to the home, not a gift that the state will use to lessen its obligation to veterans.

Any rewriting of the law should also make it retroactive for a few years, so that the home could get an immediate infusion of funds to buy such things as handicapped-accessible vans, big-screen TVs and umbrellas for the patio. Gov. Kenny Guinn should lend his support to this important issue. After the state's bungling of the home's construction, which delayed its opening by years and wasted a million dollars, the state should jump at any chance to make amends.