Columnist Jeff German: It’s time to throw the bums out

Wednesday, July 2, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

What do you do when lawmakers become lawbreakers?

You throw them out of office the first chance you get.

In the case of Nevada lawmakers, that will be next year when the 42 members of the Assembly -- which prevented the Legislature from giving Gov. Kenny Guinn a $4.9 billion balanced budget -- are up for re-election.

By not passing a record $860 million tax package to balance the budget by Tuesday, the start of the new fiscal year, Assembly members not only failed to uphold their oaths of office, they also defied the constitution.

"Everyone of them stood up, put their hand on the Bible and said, 'I'm going to obey the constitution and protect the state of Nevada.' " Guinn said. "But they didn't do that."

And so Guinn, in an unprecedented move, asked the Nevada Supreme Court to step in and either force lawmakers to do their jobs or do their jobs for them.

To be fair, not everyone in the Assembly can be blamed for this constitutional crisis, though the reputations of all are tarnished.

A group of 15 anti-tax Republicans -- led by Lynn Hettrick of Gardnerville and Bob Beers of Las Vegas -- are responsible for the nightmare. All 15 opposed the $860 million tax package from the beginning in February and held the Legislature at bay for 137 days, the last 17 of which were in special session at a cost of $40,000 a day to the taxpayers.

There is no question that $860 million is a huge tax package. But there is also no question that it is needed this time around to widen the state's tax base so that Nevadans can maintain their quality of life well into the 21st Century.

To the 15 Assembly Republicans, however, no tax is a good tax, even if it funds education for our children.

And now education is paying the price for their demagoguery.

Because of the tax impasse, the $1.6 billion public schools budget is in limbo, preventing school districts in Clark County and across the state from hiring 1,600 new teachers for the upcoming school year.

Each passing day of the deadlock is going to make things worse for education. In Clark County, for example, there's talk that the school district's Gifted and Talented Education program may be the next casualty of the budget crunch. The program's teachers may be needed elsewhere in the district.

Back in February we got our first honest look at Beers, who has been the most vocal anti-tax zealot, when he suggested in an e-mail that casino industry workers don't value education. That was supposed to be a justification to spend less money on schools. Beers ultimately apologized for his remarks.

But now that Beers and his colleagues are holding education hostage in the tax debate, we can see that he really didn't mean it. Today Beers actually considers himself a hero for forcing the governor's hand.

In reality, however, Beers and everyone else who thinks like him in Carson City are not heroes, but rather political cowards who care more about themselves than the greater good of those around them.

Worst of all, they have little regard for Nevada's constitution, which means they don't belong in public office.