Action targets ‘tax and spend crowd’

Erin Neff

Wednesday, May 14, 2003 | 9:53 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Budget votes in recent days by Democrats to increase spending for education have rankled Republicans so much that one unveiled a proposal Tuesday to cap the amount the Legislature may spend or earmark for state programs.

Assemblyman Ron Knecht, R-Carson City, introduced Assembly Joint Resolution 18, which would require two-thirds of the Legislature to approve any appropriation that exceeds the amount authorized for expense during the 2002-03 fiscal year with cumulative percentage adjustments.

"If AJR18 were already in place, Nevada would not be facing the ridiculous and backwards situation it's in now, with the tax-and-spend crowd having passed many hundreds of millions of spending more than we are willing to fund in taxes," Knecht said.

With about 90 percent of Gov. Kenny Guinn's budget closed in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, the Assembly is on track to spend $138 million more than the governor proposed.

"AJR18 is the measure we need to keep the tax-and-spend crowd from turning our great state into East California, with their excesses and San Francisco-style liberal politics," Knecht added.

Knecht proposed moving the measure to the Constitutional Amendments Committee because the bill requires an amendment to the state Constitution. But Assembly Democrats forced the bill to be referred instead to the Ways and Means Committee, from which few bills emerge this late in the session.

Knecht said he envisioned his measure as a companion to then-Assemblyman Jim Gibbons' bill that forced two-thirds majority votes on all tax increases.

"I think it's irresponsible," Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said. "We've already found the damage that was done with the two-thirds vote."

Giunchigliani said she thought Gibbons, now a fourth-term congressman, proposed the two-thirds measure to poise himself for a statewide run.

"Maybe Mr. Knecht thinks he can play that same game here," she added.

Knecht's resolution would also require the governor's budget include recommended cuts to "facilitate, if necessary, a reduction of the total proposed budget by 3 percent."

Guinn's deputy chief of staff, Michael Hillerby, said only, "I'm sure it will get the consideration it needs."

Knecht previously had drafted a budget cap proposal, but the measure got nowhere.

The new resolution was co-sponsored by 17 Assembly Republicans, by Harry Mortenson, D-Las Vegas, and by nine senators, including Democrats Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, and Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas.

The recent moves by budget committees to surpass Guinn's recommendations are not sitting well with others.

Assemblyman Josh Griffin, R-Henderson, said he thought "the budget process has gotten out of control."

"We have made serious policy mistakes," said Griffin, the assistant minority leader and a member of both the Ways and Means and Taxation committees.

Griffin said he could not support a tax increase greater than $1 billion. Guinn's proposal is for almost $1 billion, and the additions by the Assembly puts that over $1 billion.

"We need to bring some sanity back to this discussion," Griffin said.