WEEK IN REVIEW: CARSON CITY

By J. Patrick Coolican (contact)

Sunday, April 29, 2007 | 7:25 a.m.

CARSON CITY - By the time the northern winds stopped blowing this week, the legendary majority leader didn't have his votes counted, the governor was agreeing to potential fee increases and a lifelong Republican had left the party.

It was an odd week, most people agreed. Tuesday was deadline day, when any bill with a hope to become law had to pass out of the Assembly or the Senate. The two bodies showed their distinct personalities. The Assembly was efficient and well-ahead of its deadline.

Speaker Barbara Buckley, a Las Vegas Democrat who has the advantage of a large majority, marshaled through bills expanding health care for poor children, reforming high schools, raising teacher pay, regulating payday loans, creating incentives for renewable energy and attempting to deal with the state's methamphetamine epidemic.

A bill to prevent casinos from pooling tips of their card dealers with their pit bosses, having died in committee, was brought to the floor and passed.

On the Senate side, Republicans have a narrow, 11-10 majority, and the Republican leader, Sen. Bill Raggio, had trouble keeping his caucus together. A number of Republican bills failed, including tax increases sought by rural counties. Several lobbyists, who didn't want to be named for fear of angering Raggio, said they were surprised Raggio would bring bills to the floor without the votes needed for passage. His chaotic Republican caucus may portend gridlock at the end of the session, especially if Raggio puts together a transportation package that includes a tax increase, which will be anathema to most of his Republican colleagues.

Republicans did succeed in passing legislation limiting illegal immigrants access to the state's higher education system, creating a single water authority in northern Nevada and making failure to wear a seat-belt a primary offense. (As of now, not wearing a seat-belt is a secondary offense, tacked on with speeding tickets and the like.)

Also, Raggio seems to have prevailed with Gov. Jim Gibbons in a tussle over fee increases. The state has frequently increased fees on industries to pay to regulate them, but Gibbons, a long-time signatory of the no-tax pledge, has said he'll veto any and all fee increases. He said this week he'd reconsider in a few isolated cases.

Waffling on taxes is what led longtime Republican activist Chuck Muth to proclaim he's left the party. The party has left its core principles of low taxes and limited government, he said.

This week the Economic Forum will release estimates on tax revenue, which means legislators will know exactly how much money they have, or more likely, don't have.

A session that began with big ambitions for all-day kindergarten and other expensive school reform, as well much needed spending on health care and transportation, looks increasingly like a scramble to meet basic needs, and little else.