Columnist Erin Neff: Lawmakers stuck in Oz; return to Kansas not in sight

Erin Neff

Friday, April 25, 2003 | 5:21 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- On what was supposed to be the last day of the 2001 legislative session, lobbyists and lawmakers walked around with pins declaring: "There's no place like home."

But they never did click the ruby slippers together and magically arrive at midnight's sine die that day.

Partisan gridlock forced a special session, and today, with three-quarters of the 2003 session behind us and no consensus on a budget or taxes, many suspect the same fate will befall these legislators.

Before you say "Surrender, Dorothy" to another special session, consider this: There have been an unprecedented two special sessions in two years and the public won't stand for another costly session just to hike their taxes.

Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, made that point on a different topic last week as he decried how politics had taken over the medical malpractice issue. He said if the Senate were to rewrite a malpractice bill to reverse the work of last summer's special session, taxpayers should be refunded the $200,000 for the charade.

The general prognostication is that the 2003 session cannot possibly get finished by June 2. There are too many questions to answer about the budget, and until that is set, no one will know how much in taxes will be needed.

Heck, Gov. Kenny Guinn has even said lawmakers can't go home until they figure out a tax package to fund his budget.

Legislative leaders say that as long as lawmakers concentrate on the policy and not the politics of taxes, everyone will go home on time.

But Care pointed to the infusion of politics into the medical malpractice debate last week and said: "After this floor session, you may as well all go down to the Plaza (hotel) and book your rooms for June and July."

Leaders say that were it not for the political wrangling over redistricting at the end of the 2001 session, they would have gotten home in time.

Nevadans don't want a full-time Legislature, or even a part-time one like Texas which continues to meet in smaller groups, as interim committees, between biennial sessions.

The public wants its work done in 120 days every other year. And after the $200,000 spent for the three-and-a-half day 2002 special session and what many viewed as the unnecessary 2001 special session, nobody wants to hit the trifecta in 2003.

State leaders have to start being just that.

Guinn has to beat a constant drum for his tax plan. He has to show up to hearings, and he has to win back his flock of Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, has to prove he is in charge of the votes in his caucus. He has to take a position on specific taxes and start demanding his colleagues back him.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, has been the loudest voice in the tax debate thus far, but still goes mute so often that weeks have gone by without anything getting done.

The public elects leaders to make decisions and make them in the time frames we establish.

There's nothing special about raising hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, and there's nothing particularly good about spending more in a separate session to do so.