Columnist Erin Neff: Taxes rest with posturing lawmakers in back room

Erin Neff

Friday, May 9, 2003 | 5:27 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Any guise of openness in the legislative session has become cloaked in a shroud of posturing.

A dozen key lawmakers are meeting behind closed doors to build consensus on a budget and taxes while some of the same legislators are openly taking stands they privately eschew.

The secret sessions are defended as a way to gauge political support for something without the pesky problem of open government and its annoyances -- the press and the public.

But by excluding the public they show a disdain for citizens more offensive than the taxes they will shortly impose on them.

The posturing is not limited to taxes and the budget -- as the battle over consumer protection issues is proving -- but it is the most visible outpost of the private talks.

On Thursday Assembly Democrats tried time and again to win approval for education programs that aren't included in Gov. Kenny Guinn's budget. Perhaps the strategy is to publicly authorize programs that are popular with voters -- raises for teachers and books and programs for kids.

But here's the rub: Guinn's budget alone would require the Legislature to approve nearly $1 billion in new revenue through new taxes.

When $100 million and $200 million programs are added to the mix, the tax situation becomes even more grim.

In the closed-door meetings, a dozen lawmakers are reportedly (we don't really know) coming toward a budget number they can agree to fund.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, who is one of the 12 secretly meeting, was publicly incensed at what the Assembly Democrats were trying to do in the budget committee Thursday.

"Every one of these proposals costs more than $200 million," Raggio said. "There's a tendency by people to posture knowing that won't be the end result."

Ah, the end game.

Will it be June 2 or another partisan-gridlock-forced special session?

A public version of the secret group talks should have begun months ago -- on the floor of the Legislature.

Now with deadlines striking and bills dying, some lawmakers have no reason to stick around for three more weeks, except of course to screw others out of their bills.

Lawmakers are certainly not thrilled about the massive taxes they must approve to go home, tax increases most think will bounce them out of office next November.

But unless the posturing ends sometime in the very, very near future, they will still be in the capital for weeks and weeks.