Editorial: Bringing democracy back

Monday, Jan. 22, 2007 | 7:13 a.m.

Democracy in Nevada has lost its way.

Voters are directly deciding complex policy matters because initiatives, largely driven by special interests, have overwhelmed the ballot. That is not the way the framers of the state Constitution envisioned things. They created a representative democracy, in which the people elect leaders to make the decisions in government. Initiatives were intended as an extraordinary means for the people to amend the Constitution or create a law.

Instead, initiatives have become a routine way of making law because special interest groups have seen that they can sidestep the Legislature by easily qualifying an initiative for the ballot.

In last year's election, voters were asked to decide 10 initiatives. Among them were two competing questions to change the laws regarding smoking in public; a change to complex eminent domain laws that could increase the costs of highway construction; a measure that would make marijuana legal; and a minimum-wage increase.

The special interests that push these issues portray them as simple, but the reality is these are very technical and complex issues that would be better hashed out in public debate in the state Legislature. Instead, public policy is being dictated by initiatives that often contain horrible flaws because they never get the scrutiny of the Legislature.

There are several proposals to change the initiative process. The Legislature needs to act to make it more difficult to get an initiative on the ballot and find a way to assure that the initiatives pass some sort of legal muster before they reach the ballot so Nevadans don't find themselves governed by bad laws.

Another way the Legislature can address this is by showing the political courage to take on difficult issues, such as those that ended up on the ballot this past year.

Oddly, while lawmakers have shown no problem letting voters decide issues, they won't let county officials make any number of important decisions, such as whether to levy a tax.

Clark County lacks what is called home rule - the counties cannot do anything unless it is specifically authorized by state law.

Lawmakers say the lack of home rule is good because it gives a check and balance to county government. But it also spawns things like this: This year the county is asking the Legislature for permission to be able to tow illegally parked cars out of the county parking lot.

Clark County has a budget of nearly $6 billion and has more than half the state's population. It is long past time to give the county more control of its destiny. The voters of Clark County, the people most affected, and not lawmakers from other parts of the state, should be the check and balance. That is the way a representative democracy works.