Panel considers transportation authority

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 | 9:09 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn's plan to abolish the state Transportation Services Authority that regulates limousines, tow cars, household movers and some taxicabs was to face a vote today in the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.

Guinn is proposing to move the responsibilities currently handled by the authority back under the state Public Utilities Commission. The commission had handled those duties prior to 1997.

The transportation authority, headquartered in Las Vegas, is now governed by a three-member commission led by Chairwoman Sandra Avants, who intends to retire in October.

The agency receives 94 percent of its annual $2.4 million budget from the state highway fund and the remainder comes from user fees. Don Soderberg, chairman of the PUC, said he wanted to make the industry cover more of the cost of regulation instead of tapping into the highway money.

The plan called for the yearly fees to go to $200 per vehicle instead of the current charges of $75 for each taxicab outside of Clark County, $36 for tow cars and $100 for each limousine.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, and Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, questioned the proposed increase in fees. Nolan, chairman of the committee, said the greatest obstacle to approval of the plan is the increase in fees. He said the bill would have to be examined by the budget committees in the Senate and Assembly.

After a recess, Soderberg said the fee increases would be withdrawn in order to move the bill because time is running out on the session.

Soderberg was originally appointed to the Public Utilities Commission, then was named to the Transportation Services Authority and then returned to the utilities commission.

The Guinn plan will be amended into Assembly Bill 505 that would have created a commissioner of transportation to replace the three commissioners.

The amendment calls for creation of a commissioner of transportation under the PUC to handle transportation matters. The transportation authority staff would be transferred to the PUC. The transportation commissioner would be Kimberly Maxson-Rushton, who is now a commissioner on the transportation authority.

The third commissioner, Bruce Breslow of Sparks, resigned from the authority to go into private business.

As of January, the authority regulated an estimated 1,250 limousines, 650 tow trucks, 110 moving companies and 350 taxicabs outside of Clark County.

A legislative audit released last year said the TSA failed to ensure that safety inspections were conducted on limousines and buses in Nevada and on taxicabs outside of Clark County in 2003.

The reorganization would not affect the Taxicab Authority in Las Vegas that regulates the taxicab industry in Southern Nevada.