LOOKING IN ON: CARSON CITY

Monday, Dec. 18, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons says he has no plans to increase the gasoline tax to fund new highways.

In their first meeting since the election, Gibbons met last week for more than an hour with Gov. Kenny Guinn to discuss topics that included the budget, government structure and deadlines on various issues.

Gibbons, who takes over Jan. 1, pledged to stand behind the major recommendations that Guinn has put in a proposed budget, saying that he will add some "small fingerprints" to the budget to be presented to the Legislature in January.

One proposal he will not follow, however, is that of the "Blue Ribbon Task Force on Transportation," which has recommended tying the tax on a gallon of gasoline to inflation to fund a $3.8 billion deficit for highway construction.

"I am not going to increase taxes," Gibbons said.

The task force also suggested slowing the depreciation schedules that determine how quickly the annual automobile registration fees drop as cars age - a plan that could generate an estimated $96 million in 2008.

Although that proposal also would raise Nevadans' car costs, it is "not off the table," Gibbons said.

In his proposed budget, Guinn has recommended, among other things, that state workers, schoolteachers and university professors receive 2 percent and 4 percent pay raises, respectively, in the next two fiscal years.

Guinn added that his budget has "some flexibility" so that lawmakers will have a chance to pursue other priorities.

"We didn't just try to button it up," Guinn said. "I left some dollars on the table for them."

Jeff Fontaine, director of the state Transportation Department since 2003, is resigning to become executive director of the Nevada Association of Counties.

Fontaine of Carson City will stay on at Transportation, one of the biggest agencies in the state, until the end of the year . Gibbons has not named a replacement for the $115,000-a-year job that oversees the state's highway construction program.

State Treasurer-elect Kate Marshall is going to move into the traditional office of the state treasurer on the ground floor of the state Capitol - thanks to a musical chairs compromise offered by Gibbons.

Treasurer Brian Krolicki, who was elected lieutenant governor Nov. 7, did not want to vacate the treasurer's office on the main floor to move to the second floor, where Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt has been housed.

Not moving, Krolicki argued, would save money. He also said that being on the second floor would put the treasurer closer to her executive staff. He did not explain, however, why he never proposed the move in his eight years as treasurer.

Although Marshall said all along she was more focused on the business of her new post than on office layouts, she said she felt she should occupy the treasurer's traditional location in the Capitol.

Marshall said Mike Dayton, Gibbons' incoming chief of staff, offered a solution: Marshall will occupy the treasurer's current office; Krolicki will be moved to the Capitol annex, taking space now occupied by Guinn's staff, and Gibbons will occupy what had been the upstairs office of the lieutenant governor.

Although he's going to be moving after all, Krolicki, in a press release, thanked Gibbons for giving him office space that "is ideal for our needs."