Rural GOP perplexes Democrats

Monday, June 30, 2003 | 9:17 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Some Democrats in the Legislature are having a hard time understanding why rural Republicans plead for money for their areas and then refuse to increase taxes.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, has compiled a list of enhancements in the proposed $4.6 billion budget that will help those in the rural counties. It adds up to $18.1 million in general fund money and includes more law enforcement agents, additional money for schools, funds for wild horses and special aid to help out some counties.

Leslie said Sunday she compiled the list after Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, was quoted in the Reno Gazette-Journal as saying that rural residents don't care about potential threats to withdraw money from the area unless the assemblymen support a tax increase.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said "They better be careful what they ask for."

Leslie said she was not making any threats to take away money from rural areas, but said she found it hypocritical that they vote for money for their districts but won't support the taxes.

Assemblyman Ron Knecht, R-Carson City, said Sunday he did not think the Democrats would "savage" the rural counties if these GOP members did not support the tax proposal. He said if they tried, the move would never be approved by the Senate.

Knecht said the rural Republicans in the GOP caucus have been the most compromising. He said Tom Grady of Yerington, Rod Scherer of Pahrump, Pete Goicoechea of Eureka and possibly John Marvel of Battle Mountain support a plan for $704 million in new taxes.

"Why pick on them?" asked Knecht.

The others in the caucus back new taxes of $600 million or less, he said.

During the regular session the budget committees, after hearing pleas from rural Republican assemblymen, restored nearly $5 million cut by Gov. Kenny Guinn from the law enforcement budget. They urged the committees not to eliminate agents who are helping control the drug trafficking in rural Nevada.

Grady, Carpenter, Scherer and Goicoechea also asked for funds be restored to school districts that are losing students.

Guinn had recommended in his budget that the districts where enrollment is decreasing receive enough money to tide them over for one year instead of two years, as had been the case. The so-called "hold harmless" money was restored for two years.

During that hearing Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, repeatedly asked the lawmakers if they would vote for taxes if the spending were increased. Some hedged but said they would support education. Coffin now says they broke their promise.

Leslie said the Legislature voted to hire 18 new mental health workers at a cost of $2.9 million over the next two years to help in those areas where the suicide rate is high. There is $300,000 for a rural drug court, similar to those being operated in Las Vegas and Reno.

There is $208,000 for a special wild horse program in Western Nevada. There is $701,000 for the Comstock Historic District Office in Virginia City.

And there is about $5 million in building projects for rural Nevada, Leslie said.

Giunchigliani said most of the proposed taxes will be raised in Las Vegas and Reno, then siphoned off to the rural counties. She said the only businesses in rural Nevada that would pay a gross receipts or franchise taxes are the mines and the casinos, and she said they support the plan.

"On one hand," Leslie said, "if they need the money, this is what we do. We represent the people of our districts. But then at the end to turn around and say 'I am not going to raise taxes' to fund the budget is hypocritical."

She said in the long run the decisions being made in this Legislature "will have horrible effects on rural Nevada for decades to come."

Clark County subsidizes the rest of the state, Leslie said. "It's going to make it harder in the future for me, as a Northern Nevadan, to stand up and defend the needs of rural Nevada when its own representatives are fighting so hard against raising taxes. I don't blame the Clark County people for being mad."

Knecht said during negotiations people will make suggestions and virtual threats. He said the threats have been made to punish rural Nevada. "But some of it is posturing and some of it is just for the effect of getting you to think what chances you want to take," said Knecht.

He said he was confident the Senate would not allow the cuts in rural Nevada.