Editorial: Stroking business interests

Wednesday, April 11, 2007 | 7:34 a.m.

Gov. Jim Gibbons has called for a top-down review of state regulations affecting businesses, one that certainly will please the Republican's corporate supporters. While the review invites industry and businesses to offer comment on any regulations they feel are too restrictive or irrelevant, it shuts the public out of the discussions.

A story by the Las Vegas Sun on Tuesday reports that the state Business and Industry Department review could affect the regulation of a wide range of areas - including worker safety, consumer affairs, real estate, mortgage lenders and taxicab companies. About the only industry that will be left alone is gaming.

Mendy Elliott, the department's director, told the Sun's J. Patrick Coolican that business and industry leaders will be encouraged to submit their views but that allowing the public to also make comments would be cumbersome. The public, Elliott said, can comment once proposed policy changes are submitted to the individual commissions governing those industries.

It is no wonder that consumer and environmental advocates are worried. The governor seeks to do an end-run around the public and the Nevada Legislature in his bid to rewrite state regulations to his liking.

Granted, there are some protections in the process. Commissions must conduct at least one public workshop and one public hearing for proposed regulatory changes. And the Legislative Commission, which is composed of Assembly and Senate members, can overturn any new regulations. Nonetheless, Gibbons' plan is a disturbing and wrongheaded approach to regulation.

It is clear that Gibbons values the desires of businesses and industries, many of which supported him during his campaign, over the concerns and desires of the average Nevadan. The former five-term congressman acts as if being Nevada's governor is akin to holding office in the old Republican-run Congress, where lobbyists and special interests - rather than the will of the people - determined the laws of the land. Governor, this isn't Washington. Leave your old political playbook at home.