Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- The state's federal lobbying office has a new person in charge, a slightly larger budget than in past years, and is expected to be a point of contention again in the coming legislative session.
Gov. Kenny Guinn has named the state's longtime federal lobbyist Mike Pieper to serve as executive director of the Republican Governors Association. Pieper will take a leave of absence from Nevada's Washington office, handing over the responsibility to Ashley Carrigan, 27, who has worked in the office with Pieper since 2000.
As director, Carrigan will still handle many of the same issues she did as Pieper's assistant, but also will take over the day-to-day operations of the office. She will pay close attention this year to any potential Medicaid reform, transportation funding and reauthorizing the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF program, which distributes welfare money to needy families, she said.
Carrigan said that in addition to staying on top of what is going on in Congress, she will be working with Nevada's congressional delegation when one of its three House members or two senators need to know more about how a bill one of them is proposing may affect the state, Carrigan said. She said she also will be working with the delegation to try to change federal funding formulas to take into account Nevada's significant increase in population in recent years.
The state's Washington office has been controversial in the past, with some assembly members questioning the more than quarter-million-dollar annual contract to keep the office running. However, Guinn has no plans to change Nevada's lobbying effort in the nation's capital, his spokesman Greg Bortolin said.
The office is "more than a luxury," Bortolin said.
The office is the "state administration's link" to Washington, paying attention to grants, programs and other federal money that can make its way to Nevada as well as staying on top of legislation, Bortolin said.
"It's a pretty efficient office," Bortolin said.
The state's general fund, the Transportation Department, the Commission on Economic Development and the Commission on Tourism contribute money toward the office's budget.
The office has a $260,000 budget for 2005, including $185,000 in salaries and employee benefits, $1,000 in business entertainment, and $11,000 in travel expense.
The budget allocates about $30,000 for rent of office space in the Hall of States' office a few blocks from the Capitol. The same building houses other states' offices and C-SPAN.
Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, has criticized the office in the past and plans to bring it up again when legislators start discussing the budget. She said it has nothing to do with the people working in the office, just that she sees it as a "duplicative" effort on the taxpayers expense for things the congressional offices and other lobbyists for state agencies already do.
"The taxpayers pay twice," she said.
The Nevada State Office is just one of several extra voices in Washington working for interests in Nevada beyond the congressional delegation.
More than 100 different companies, city governments and departments have hired various lobbyists to do work for them in Congress
Former Gov. and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., has several contracts -- through law firm Lionel, Sawyer and Collins -- to work for North Las Vegas, the City of Boulder, the City of Las Vegas and the University of Nevada in Reno, although some need to be renewed.
According to a Senate Lobbying Disclosure form filed last year, the City of Henderson used Campbell Company, UNLV used Cassidy and Associates and the Clark County Water Reclamation District used lobbyist Marcus Faust for its issues.
She said she has heard the office is basically an "eat, meet and greet type of thing" when a legislator or other state official visits Washington. "It just seems like it doesn't need to be there," Giunchigliani said.
But Assemblyman Lynn Hetrick, R-Gardnerville, said the "office has paid for itself and it's worth it."
Hetrick said the highway funds alone the office helps bring to the state covers its cost. He said that Nevada only brings in up to 80 cents for every dollar paid in federal taxes when other states are more around $1.35 per dollar paid.
"There's an expense to that (office) but as fast as we are growing, it's needed," Hetrick said. "It's like everything else, people have their job to do."
Assemblyman John Marvel, R-Battle Mountain, said he is a "firm believer" in the office because it can devote all its time to specific state issues.
"They can work as a liaison with other state offices," he said. Marvel said the office has been helpful in setting up meetings with other states and other federal offices in Washington
The office opened in 1986 under the direction of Leo Penne, and Penne held the job until Guinn replaced him with Pieper in 1999. Through his company Michael Pieper & Associates, Pieper said he will still "pay the bills" and handle administrative work but will no longer receive a salary from the contract.
The Washington office employees are not considered state employees, so Pieper had to set up its own retirement accounts and insurance benefits.
Under the arrangement, however, Carrigan reports directly to the governor's office, Pieper said.
David Cherry, spokesman for Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said the office is "invaluable" because the delegation members get pulled in so many different directions on a variety of topics while the state office can focus on just on the needs of the state.
"The state office has a much better sense of what is going on the ground," Cherry said.
Cherry said the office knows the state's needs and how to coordinate them with the delegation's various leadership positions, party affiliation and committee assignments in order to get things done. With the state's burgeoning population, the state office usually has access the state's own data, which has more up-to-date population information than the federal census numbers and helps to determine what additional allocations it needs, Cherry said.
Jeff Fontaine, director of Nevada's Department of Transportation, said the office has helped draft legislation over the years and has been useful "navigating" the complex process involved in multi-billion federal spending and authorization bills.
"When we look at what our goal is, securing as much federal funding as we can get, they are just really important to us," Fontaine said.
He said the office works on getting roughly $200 million in a transportation spending bill with an additional $20 million to $40 million in additional transportation project money.
He used the Hoover Dam Bypass as an example. Nevada has received roughly $100 million in federal money for the $240 million project. Fontaine said state transportation officials have their own organization to talk to each other, but when it goes above that level, the Washington office helps establishing relationships with other state governors, in that case Arizona.
Fontaine said the department meets with the Congress members when they are in Nevada or when he is in Washington, but he is in more regular contract the Washington office.
There have been unsuccessful attempts in the past to eliminate the office. Fontaine said if it were to be taken away, it would be a great loss.
"Absolutely, for us it would be," Fontaine said.
Aides in all five of Nevada congressional offices said the office is useful, providing extra representation for the state and help when they need it.
Bortolin said Carrigan did a good job working with Pieper and knows the governor believes she will maintain the same level of service the state receives out of the office.
Carrigan came to the nation's capital after graduating from the University of Nevada in Reno in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in international affairs and political science and has worked with Pieper in the state's office ever since. She was as a legislative assistant and was acting as a liaison between the state and federal offices in Washington. She is the immediate past president of the Nevada State Society in Washington.
There have been other recent changes in Nevada's federal lobbying office as well. Ryan McGinness, who worked for Pieper on other contracts he had with Corona and San Bernardino, Calif., will now work on Nevada issues, Carrigan said. McGinness was elected the 2005 president of the Nevada State Society in December.
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