Political notebook: Guns, anti-abortion plates urged

Erin Neff

Friday, Feb. 14, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Two conservative lawmakers have introduced bills that would create special license plates supporting anti-abortion organizations and the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

Sen. Ray Shaffer, R-North Las Vegas, sponsored Senate Bill 120 to create the anti-abortion plate. The plate would be designed in conjunction with CHOOSE LIFE Inc. and would cost $35.

Shaffer, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, says the plate must include the words "choose life." Some of the proceeds from the plates would go to individual counties, which then would be required to offer grants to nonprofit organizations that counsel pregnant women in abortion alternatives and adoption.

Funding could not go to any group that makes referrals for abortion or even mentions the procedure.

Assemblyman Don Gustavson, R-Sun Valley, wants a license plate to honor the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms. Assembly Bill 15 would allow the state Department of Motor Vehicles to design the plate with input from those who teach gun safety classes in public schools.

Both measures were introduced in their individual houses Thursday, and were referred to Transportation Committees.

Gross misstatement

There are plenty of ways to obscure the facts to help make your point of view appear that much more relevant.

Such was the case Tuesday when Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, ranted against the gross receipts tax he so loathes.

He angrily compared the gross gaming tax to the proposed quarter of 1 percent tax on business receipts over $450,000, saying gaming only pays the gross tax on its win while business would have to pay regardless of whether it had a good year.

The governor's staff let his comments slide during the hearing but later complained that a veteran lawmaker who has been holding court in budget hearings since 1993 should know that gaming pays on its gross, not just its win.

They said it:

"Is it a result of the added stress from last week's presentation to today's?" McGinness asked Tuesday during a Taxation Committee hearing.

"I take the Fifth," Gov. Kenny Guinn's Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Hillerby said.

"The Fifth or a fifth?" McGinness probed.

"No comment," Hillerby said.

Neal, who is black, finally walked in the door 15 minutes after the start of the meeting.

"Geez, we thought you got stopped by the cops," Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said.

Piling on

Gov. Kenny Guinn isn't having an easy time of things now that he has proposed the biggest tax increase in state history.

Guinn has been criticized statewide and in the Wall Street Journal for not making enough cuts to government.

Now someone's stepping forward to gripe about a cut he is making.

The State Peace Officers Council condemned Guinn's proposed elimination of the state Department of Public Safety Investigations Division's role in statewide drug task force programs.

The move would eliminate 39 jobs, which the Peace Officers Council states "will result in an open door policy for the drug dealers in the affected areas."

Forty minutes a day

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Check out Cox Communications each weeknight between 7 and 11 p.m. for eight five-minute segments with legislators. The segments, hosted by Cox's Steve Schorr, air at 24 minutes and 54 minutes after the hour on CNN Headline News, Cox Channel 22.

Mulitple hats

Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt has tapped radio host Ira David Sternberg to be deputy chief of staff and director of communications.

Sternberg is president of IDS Creative Communications, a public relations firm, and hosts a weekly radio talk show on KDWN 720-AM. He is the former director of public relations for the Tropicana hotel.

Sternberg is also president-elect of the business council for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. He started work Feb. 3 and will be based in the Las Vegas office.

Sternberg replaces Kris Abscher, who left after Hunt's successful re-election campaign.