Lawmakers oppose new laptops, citing abuse

Friday, Nov. 19, 2004 | 11:09 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- As they look at a proposed budget of $78 million for the coming two years of legislative operations, two veteran Republican senators are balking at the proposal to spend an about $140,000 on new laptops for lawmakers and some of their staff members, saying there's widespread misuse of the current laptops.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said he has seen "too many lawmakers using them in committee to e-mail each other, play solitaire or read a newspaper."

Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Las Vegas, agreed, saying "The abuse is rampant. It's absolutely a disgrace."

Raggio also said he didn't think the legislators' 4-year-old laptops need to be replaced. Townsend and Raggio allowed, however, that lawmakers' staff members might need new laptops because they use them more often.

The comments came during the Legislative Biennial Budget Review Committee's of the proposed $60.3 million budget to pay for the legislative operations, including the staff salaries for the next two years -- a 14 percent increase over the present biennium.

The $60.3 million also doesn't include the proposed $18 million cost of the 2005 Legislature.

The Legislative Subcommittee on Information Technology on Thursday suggested buying 100 new Gateway laptops at a cost of $1,325 plus an additional cost of $35-$40 each for 200 computer adapters to be placed in the legislative building.

After the comments of Raggio and Townsend, Assemblymen Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, and Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, defended the proposed purchase.

Hettrick called the laptops the "wave of the future" and, if properly used, were absolutely necessary. He said he makes notes on the computer on budgets and bills, and he doesn't have to carry around the bill books or the fat budget documents.

Arberry said there would always be abuse such as playing solitaire, but even with that the laptops "are the best thing that ever happened."

When Raggio said he did not believe the laptops needed to be replaced every two or four years, Hettrick said that without the upgrade, some of the new programs could not run on the laptops or there would be a slow down of the system.

The review committee agreed to pass the proposed $60.3 million budget on to the Legislative Commission that meets next month. But there were some misgivings beyond the laptops.

There are presently 271 employees and that would rise to 285 in the next biennium, most of them requested by the legal, research and administrative divisions.

Raggio, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee that will examine the budget during the session, said, "To add new positions at any level will be difficult." He told Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, to put a priority list together ranking those that are most needed.

Malkiewich told the review committee that the proposed employee increase was much less than requested.

In addition, the Legislative Counsel Bureau wants to upgrade a number of positions, putting them in a higher pay grade because of their increased duties.

Arberry, chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee that also scrutinizes the budget, said the staff of the Legislature must keep pace. He told Malkiewich not to hesitate to inform the Legislature of its increased needs for technology and staff.

"We don't want to be in the horse and buggy days and other states are in the jet age," Arberry said.

Raggio, however, warned that all the requests might not be approved by the Legislature. For instance, the money for the new laptop computers is included in the $18 million for the 2005 session, not in the budget of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

The review committee approved about $2 million for such things as remodeling, information technology equipment and a new emergency generator. The request was for $10 million, of which $7 million was for a new building for a warehouse to store printing materials.

Malkiewich said the Legislature should also be thinking of building a new office building for staff in four to six years. "We're filling up the building and we have people off-site," he said, referring to rental of private office space for staff.

His plan was endorsed by Arberry who said, "We're busting out of the seams. We don't want to wait too long. ... We always wait until there is a crisis."

There are four blocks south of the present building that is owned by the Legislature and could be used for a new staff quarters.