Jon Ralston wonders why Southern Nevada legislators don’t band together on road work

Friday, April 20, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

Gov. Jim Gibbons is from Reno. State Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio is from Reno. Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley is from Las Vegas. These are facts.

Twenty-nine out of the 42 Assembly members are from Clark County. Fourteen out of the 21 senators are from Southern Nevada. The South has two-thirds majorities in both houses. These are facts.

Most of the traffic problems that need money to be ameliorated are in the South. If the Clark County delegation agreed on a funding package and stuck together, nothing could stop the bill from being sent to Gibbons. With two-thirds in each house, a gubernatorial veto would be moot. These, too, are facts.

Taken together, these verities leave us with a simple syllogism: The South needs the money. The South has the votes. The South gets the money.

If only the legislative process were governed by logic. Alas, the Southern delegations in both houses have banded together to get Clark County what it needs fewer times in history than Bob Beers has voted for taxes or fees. So, as the session winds into its final third, with budget deficits disappearing and pork-seekers drooling, the new sectionalism seems very much like the old sectionalism.

Raggio has always bristled when regional flames are fanned. I have long believed that this legislative Methuselah has continued his reign to protect the North for as long as he can.

Raggio's masterful control of the process, which goes contrary to the elemental math of where the votes are, indicates how legislative alliances often are based more on party than region - he can get the Republicans - but can situationally be based on region rather than party - hence Sir Bill can grab a Northern Democrat once in awhile.

But this is not about Raggio. When it comes to Southern needs, even the great Sir Bill would be rendered irrelevant if the Clark contingent would coalesce.

Add to this mix that Gibbons is not just a fellow Republican but a fellow Renoite and clearly has a Northern perspective. He spent little time here as a congressman, he lost Clark County in the gubernatorial race and his political base is well north of Tonopah.

Maybe it's a coincidence that our first Northern governor in decades gave short shrift to a transportation task force report that outlined ways to fund a $3.8 billion infrastructure deficit. And despite a large project or two in the North, we are not talking about traffic jams in downtown Fernley. This is about ever-worsening traffic problems on the streets and highways of Clark County, where road rage is the rule not the exception on an hourly basis.

And, yet, just a few months ago, our Northern governor had this to say in his inaugural address: "One Nevada is a place where all of our communities set aside what separates us, and embrace what unites us from our citizens who mine the earth, drive trucks along our highways or serve our tourists in our hotels, to those that teach in our schools and those who enforce our laws, we come together one Nevada."

Instead, though, this would-be uniter has been quite the divider. And how ironic that he talked about truckers, who some say should help foot the bill for traffic improvements, and miners, his generous supporters for most of his career who have been mute so far.

And speaking of silence, consider this: The gaming industry, which supported Gibbons, generally has been silent on this issue. The business folks, who supported Gibbons, have been wishy-washy on what they will support. If those groups united, this funding deal would be done. These are facts.

Where is everyone representing the South's interest? My guess is that many of these groups, especially the casinos, are concerned less about sectional fires being stoked and more about someone kindling populist fires to tax them.

Buckley has started the ball rolling on a transportation tax package, and she may be able to pull enough Southern Republicans to get the job done in the lower house. That leaves the key votes in Sir Bill's territory and you can bet that some Southern senators - Beers and Barbara Cegavske come to mind - wouldn't vote for any tax package.

If lawmakers leave Carson City come June without passing any transportation funding package, voters here will know whom to blame come Campaign '08: Southern Nevada lawmakers.

That's a fact, too.