CARSON CITY: THE WEEK IN REVIEW

By J. Patrick Coolican (contact)

Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007 | 7:33 a.m.

A fire alarm went off Wednesday at the Legislature Building, and with everyone milling around outside in the pleasant warmth of the sierra sun, it felt a little like high school.

There was the tough chick and her entourage of admiring young aides (Dina Titus), the prom queen (Barbara Buckley), the guy who just never left high school (Bill Raggio), the nerds (researchers from the Legislative Council Bureau, that's you), the no-nonsense but lovable history teacher (Democratic Assemblyman Bernie Anderson), and the rich kids (the lobbyists).

And like high school, there was gossip, idle chatter, truth and falsity spoken with the same nonchalant conviction.

The Wall Street Journal was on the lips of a few of those in the know.

The very next day, that symbol of East Coast money and influence, one of the most conservative newspapers in America, showed a particular interest in Nevada, though not exactly a flattering interest.

The newspaper reported that the feds are looking at Gov. Jim Gibbons, examining whether he took illegal gifts from his friend and campaign contributor, Warren Trepp. The Sun confirmed the investigation. The Journal also published some embarrassing e-mails involving all the players. The Sun confirmed the worst of those, as well.

The problem for Gibbons is that he was already struggling. "He'll find his footing," was a common refrain, heard from Republican quarters, although they had trouble hiding their concern even before news of the FBI investigation. A connected lobbyist used the word "unsteady," and noted that business clients like stability most of all.

So as they taught us in high school physics, nature abhors a vacuum. With the governor hobbled by legal woes and depleted political capital, Assembly Speaker Buckley and Sen. Majority Leader Raggio will drive the legislative process.

There's another reason back-to-school is an apt metaphor for this past week in Carson City, for it was education that dominated discussion, just as it likely will all session long.

The 17 school district superintendents presented their iNVest plan calling for $1 billion in new spending during the next few years. It includes full-day kindergarten, five extra days for training teachers, 5 percent raises in each year for teachers and increasing the signing bonuses for new teachers from $2,000 to $2,500.

Some education consultants suggested Nevada put $2 billion more in the public schools over the next nine years to get all Nevada students to achieve adequacy.

Buckley and Assembly Democrats sought to take advantage of Gibbons' slow and awkward start in the education debate, beginning the week with a press conference that outlined their school priorities. All-day kindergarten is their must-have. They want $100 million a year.

Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, the titular head of the state's conservative ideologues, fought back, deriding what he calls the "educrats" and their "big guvmint-more money" solutions to the state's education woes. He cited studies, including one by the Rand Corp., which questioned the effectiveness of all-day kindergarten. (Beers also introduced legislation to make English the state's official language on the same day Pahrump rescinded its own similar ordinance. Pahrump: too liberal for Beers.)

Buckley also said Gibbons' plan to take $60 million from teacher hiring incentives and move it into his so-called empowerment school plan is a dead-letter. Gibbons said he was merely following the advice of the superintendents, who say the incentives don't work. That's not really what they said, though.

There was more talk of a tax increase to build much-needed roads, this time from a Republican, although his proposal would pawn it off on voters rather than fellow Republicans. Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, talked about letting voters say whether they wanted a tax increase to improve highways. The state is facing a projected shortfall of $3.8 billion over the next 10 years in the road department.

Smash-mouth conservative activist and consultant Chuck Muth went on the attack, opposed even to allowing voters to decide if they want a tax increase. They'll get no new taxes, and they'll like it! Muth could be spied wandering the halls, looking for legislators to sign his no-tax-hike pledge, in the style of his mentor, the influential conservative Beltway activist Grover Norquist.

Finally, a deal was struck on eminent domain, which refers to government taking land to build roads and schools, and sometimes, trendy neighborhoods. Everybody's against the latter, and everybody wants their name on a bill to prevent it. Some local officials, though, concerned about their ability to build needed infrastructure, have been in a panic about any law that might go too far. They made a deal.

There are many more to be made, and a bit more than a 100 days to make them.