Titus’ vote on budget bill questioned

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2003 | 10:54 a.m.

Las Vegas resident Bob Rose filed a request for an opinion from the state Ethics Commission on Monday about whether Sen. Dina Titus acted improperly by voting on the state's budget and tax bills.

Titus, D-Las Vegas and the Senate minority leader, is a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. University professors were granted a 2 percent raise as part of the budget.

Rose faxed and mailed copies of his complaint to the commission Monday. The commission's standard policy is not to comment on requests for opinion until a commission panel meets and determines whether the full commission will hear the case.

The commission's executive director, Stacy Jennings, repeated that policy this morning when asked if Rose's complaint had been received.

Rose's request is prefaced with quotes from Titus in newspaper articles and columns.

He states: "It is my opinion that Sen. Titus did push and promote this (and) was overzealous to get this tax bill passed no matter how much the public was against it."

Rose said Titus' UNLV salary of $85,000 and the $105,000 UNLV salary of her husband, Tom Wright, constituted a conflict.

Titus could not be reached Monday or this morning for comment.

Last week she said Rose's complaint was misguided, and she said she believed Rose was using the complaint to jumpstart a campaign against her for her Senate seat in next fall's election.

Several other lawmakers who are also public employees voted for the tax bill.