Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Battle plans are drawn

CARSON CITY -- Even before the Legislature adjourned Thursday in disarray, lawmakers and lobbyists were readying their battle plans for the next two weeks.

"What you've got to do is stay on message, focus on the schools and step up the pressure," Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, told teacher union representatives waiting to find out what the Legislature was going to do.

The second special session will begin June 25, and the next 10 days will be filled with lobbying, negotiations and attempts to forge a tax compromise that funds education before the fiscal year runs out on June 30.

It will not be pretty or easy.

"There are 2 million people, and every one has an idea on how to do a tax plan," Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, said.

Lawmakers have stalled on a plan that would add $870 million in new taxes to cover the state's deficit.

Legislative leaders are not just at odds over which taxes to raise, some are still struggling with the amount of the budget and others are still trying to heal bruised egos.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, still wonders why he spent hours Tuesday forging a compromise with Amodei that has never come for a vote.

"I just don't understand why they (Senate Republicans) wouldn't want to look at a plan that was reached in compromise and try it," Perkins said in an interview Thursday before the governor ended the first special session. "I feel so turned around by their rejection of the offer that it feels as though I wasted hours working on it."

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, is smarting equally from three consecutive failed Senate votes on a tax plan.

"I still can't understand why people changed their votes and how support in one minute turned into failure," Raggio said, referring to the two unsuccessful tax votes in the Senate on Wednesday. "We've made every effort and maybe some people need to step back."

Interest groups dominated the 120-day session that ended June 2 without one vote on taxes. The lobbyists representing labor unions, casinos, businesses, banks and teachers hammered lawmakers throughout the 10-day special session and won't wait to return to the capital to share their ideas.

"I think the leadership is going to continue to talk and call in the interested parties when they're impacted by something," said Harvey Whittemore, a Nevada Resort Association lobbyist. "But I don't think any of the lobbyist groups are going to be writing any new tax plans."

Terry Hickman, the Nevada State Education Association's president and one of the representatives Giunchigliani was lecturing last week, is pledging to keep pressure on lawmakers.

"We need to make a very clear case that what is happening is extremely detrimental to next year's school year," Hickman said.

"The fight here is going to have an impact in every classroom, and that's a very high price to pay for partisanship."

Lawmakers will be tasked June 25 -- as they were in the regular session that started Feb. 3 and the special session that started June 3 -- with finding the money to cover the budget. The state budget plan passed during the regular session, but in the special session lawmakers have been debating the budget to fund K-12 schools and the tax plan to cover the state deficit.

Gov. Kenny Guinn ordered the Legislature to consider the Distributive School Account budget and a class-size reduction measure that together cost nearly $2 billion.

But to pass that, the Legislature must pass about $870 million in taxes to cover the deficit. Those in favor of the taxes have coupled education spending with the tax increase.

"It's time that the people directly affected by these budgets come out and target those who voted against these budgets," Giunchigliani said. "A no vote wasn't a no vote on taxes and a yes vote for the education budget, it was simply a no."

Giunchigliani said she thought those who voted against tax plans on June 7 should be specifically targeted by those affected by the lack of action on a budget.

"Every group ought to be out in full force," Giunchigliani said.

One group that is sure to pressure lawmakers is the Assembly Republican Caucus.

Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, said he hopes to use the next 10 days to develop a plan to reduce proposed new spending.

"I think that the message with the breakdown of the regular session and the first special session is that something has to change," Hettrick said.

Hettrick and Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, have been leading the call to reduce the $4.95 billion budget by about $400 million.

Guinn has steadfastly refused to reopen the state budget because more than 70 percent of lawmakers approved it and he signed it into law.

"Absolutely not," Guinn said. "We're not going there."

But Hettrick said he thought if he identified specific ways to "reduce new spending," the governor and Assembly Democrats would have to take note.

"We're actually going to develop a plan to make an offer," he said.

The Assembly has had 27 votes for taxes for about two weeks. Four Republicans have pledged support, but enticing a fifth to switch has been futile so far.

Some effort will be spent in the next week and a half courting potential swing voters such as Assemblymen Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka; Tom Grady, R-Yerington; and Rod Sherer, R-Pahrump.

But the four Republicans who will vote yes said they aren't the ones convincing their colleagues to break with the caucus' majority.

"The people that want to vote to support the budget have come to that position independently," said Assistant Minority Leader Josh Griffin, R-Henderson.

"I'm just doing what I think I should do," added Assemblyman Jason Geddes, R-Reno.

Still, Griffin is quietly working to gain more support.

"Do I think this is a good budget? Yes," Griffin said. "Do I think this is a responsible budget? Yes. Is it a budget I can get re-elected on? Yes."

Political pressure will certainly weigh on legislators before they return. Gaming lobbyists, who support business and bank taxes, remind lawmakers of the fate that beset the 1991 Legislature after the business license tax was created: Most Republicans who voted against the tax lost their next election.

The potential swing Republicans -- Goicoechea, Grady and Sherer -- are being told that their districts have more Republican voters than Democrats. Their districts were held by Democrats before last year's election.

The parties also are looking for ways to salvage their reputation after the regular and first special session each broke apart without a solution.

Perkins, who is running for governor in 2006, and Raggio, who may retire from his 30-year legislative career after this session, both want to win. Raggio thinks he will win by passing a bill out of the Senate that the Assembly can amend, triggering a conference committee in which he and Perkins can settle differences.

Perkins has stated that a broad-based business tax must be included in any plan that clears the Assembly. The franchise and financial-institutions taxes that he supports would help him keep that promise.

"Obviously, leadership from both parties is going to have to work this out," Nevada Taxpayer Association President Carole Vilardo said. "But you're going to have legislators going back to their districts and hearing that people are very concerned about these tax increases."

archive