No doubt, special interests dominate

Sunday, June 17, 2007 | 7:02 a.m.

On a recent crisp spring morning in Carson City, a limousine driver decided the parking area wasn't for him and drove right onto the sidewalk of the Legislature Building.

Out stepped William Weidner, president of Las Vegas Sands, apparently a man of few steps.

It was a rich symbol of the power of special interests in Nevada state government.

Indeed, in the days leading up to Gov. Jim Gibbons' unveiling of his transportation plan, which would have diverted hotel room tax money from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to road projects, the Carson City parlor game had people debating whether Gibbons would listen to Las Vegas Sands and its lobbyists, who favored the plan, or the rest of the Strip, which opposed it.

Certainly the entire state and its people have a stake in an efficient transportation system. But the debate in Carson City came down to one resort against a bunch of others aligned with the powerful Convention Authority, which sought to protect the state money it uses to promote Las Vegas.

"It was gaming period. And the Convention Authority," said Chris Giunchigliani, a long-serving member of the Legislature before being elected to the Clark County Commission last year.

"Making decisions, and rightly so they should be at the table, but there was no discussion of mass transit, or any discussion of other quality-of-life issues and how they interrelate," Giunchigliani said.

Although transportation experts say the state faces as much as a $5 billion transportation shortfall between now and 2015, the Legislature and Gibbons came up with $1 billion, much of that to be taken from money otherwise set to go to Clark County capital projects.

It was a vivid reminder that, by many measures, Nevada government isn't working.

The 2007 session began with high hopes, with an expectation that the Legislature would step into the crises in schools, health care, transportation and social services.

In the end, advocates on those issues said, the state made incremental progress, if it made any at all.

The Clark County School District is expected to have 3,000 teacher vacancies by August, a reflection of low teachers salaries and rising living costs.

One result: For every 100 Nevada ninth graders, just 12 will have a bachelor's degree by the time they turn 24.

We have more children without health insurance than most states. Many indexes of crime are worsening, yet Metro Police still have one of the lowest officer-to-population ratios of any urban department in the country.

The transportation episode, marked by its heavy reliance on a few wealthy players, is instructive. It illustrates how the state's governance is marked by the dominance of special interests.

For some, Nevada's government is a beautiful and profitable system that delivers protection from onerous regulation and taxation , and even an occasional favor or windfall, as in the 2005 tax breaks for environmentally friendly construction, which will mean millions of dollars for a few prominent Nevada companies, such as MGM Mirage.

In their book "Interest Group Politics," political scientists Clive Thomas and Ronald Hrebenar classify states into five categories according to the clout held by special interests, with "dominant" the category where those interests hold the most sway over policy. Nevada is one of four states in which special interests are considered dominant.

The cause of this hegemony, Thomas said in an interview, is easy enough to see: A few powerful industries - tourism, gaming, mining and development - are anchors of the state's economy and a steady source of political cash.

More to the point, those industries flourish in a state that doesn't have strong political parties or compelling political figures (with a few exceptions) to act as a counterbalance against the powerful interests.

Now throw in what UNR political scientist Eric Herzik calls "cultural brakes" on government services - the states's strong history of Goldwaterite libertarianism that eschews taxes and regulation.

This combination of powerful special interests and voter antipathy toward government has resulted in enormous disadvantages for advocates of better and more government services. Yet they do have small reason for hope.

The strong private/weak public sector history is pushing up against fresh political currents, especially in Southern Nevada, where rapid growth and urbanization are creating a movement for more and better government, according to Herzik, who studies special interests and leans Republican.

"Its true in every state, but in Nevada, we've gone from incredibly low baseline services to a population that far exceeds what that baseline can provide," he said. "It's true in roads, schools, higher education. The crunch is here."

However, as Herzik and a number of legislators, lobbyists and advocates said in interviews , special interests and deeply ingrained libertarian attitudes aren't the only impediments to better government. Structural idiosyncrasies about the Nevada Legislature and state government will continue to stand in the way of better and more helpful government.

Herzik called these structural barriers "icing on the cake."

Just to start, the Legislature is required to muster a supermajority of votes to raise taxes. The state also has a spending cap and a constitutional prohibition against an income tax.

And, the capital is more than 400 miles from Las Vegas, where 72 percent of the population lives. That distance severely limits the ability of average people to lobby the Legislature.

As Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, said, "It's just not the same if you're not there."

Beers added that the distance has been mitigated by a greater media presence, and by Webcasting of the session and teleconferencing from the Sawyer State Office Building in Las Vegas.

Still, it can be a bit lonely, said Jan Gilbert, lobbyist for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), an umbrella organization of grass-roots liberal groups started in 1993 after a particularly rough session for poor women and children.

Because of the distance, Gilbert, who's hugely outnumbered by dozens of business lobbyists, cannot mobilize the bulk of her group's constituencies, who mostly live in Southern Nevada.

As Herzik said of liberal and conservative advocacy organizations alike: "Of course they don't have access. They don't have the time, they don't have the money, they don't have the expertise."

Thomas noted that states where special interests are less dominant tend to have parity with a profusion of interest groups of all types.

Another structural problem with the state's government is the manpower - or lack of it - available to legislators. The Legislature's policy research staff is undermanned, according to some.

"Information is power," Giunchigliani said. By that, she was referring to the reams of research available to lobbyists, who can then marshal their arguments and data to win the day.

Giunchigliani said that she often did her own research, and that every legislator is competing with 62 other legislators to get research requests completed by the staff. Moreover, during the 120-day session, the workload for staff expands exponentially.

The 120-day session offers another advantage to special interests, Herzik said. To stay in the game, you have to be there the entire time, and only wealthy interests can really afford to do so.

The short session is also an impediment to good governance, some say.

Mike Hillerby, a chief of staff for former Gov. Kenny Guinn and now a lobbyist, said the time limit was a noble idea to finish the people's business in a timely manner. But he said it no longer makes sense because of the complex issues the state faces as it continues its rapid growth.

The time limit, which often leads to last-minute legislating, can enable shenanigans.

This session saw a late attempt to pass the so-called theme park bill, legislation written so broadly that casinos, theme parks, malls, car dealerships - whatever - could have set up business without paying state or local taxes.

It died under the glare of media lights.

For his part, Hillerby suggested another flaw in state government: Legislative districts were once much geographically larger and more diverse, encompassing large and small businesses, union shops, mining, ranching, kids and retirees. Legislators had to balance a number of special interests.

Now, districts are small and often homogenous, so that, in his words, a member can get elected with "a couple of trailer parks and a retirement community." This leads to a lack of empathy for districts that look different and have vastly different needs, he said.

Another very real factor also urging haste instead of thoughtful consideration: Legislators are paid $130 per day for the first 60 days of the session and nothing for the second half of the session, although they receive a small per diem allowance for food and lodging.

This tends to limit participation to those who can afford to take time off and have a boss willing to give them time.

Finally, by meeting just every other year, the Legislature is forced to plan policy for the following two years, even as the state undergoes massive change.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, has suggested considering a limited budget session on the off years, which would allow policymakers to adjust for unintended consequences or a changed fiscal landscape.

For the most part, though, Buckley downplayed the structural issues and the power of special interests. She said the key to better policy is simple: electing quality representatives.

For Beers, who's firmly rooted in the state's libertarian past, the suggestion that Nevada should have a full-time Legislature that is paid and has significant staff sounds suspiciously like California, which is his personal nightmare.

Beers won't be in the state Senate much longer because of the onset of term-limits that will toss out anyone with more than a dozen years of service.

Most experts agree that without experienced legislators to counterbalance the lobbyists, the special interests will become more powerful.