CARSON CITY

By J. Patrick Coolican (contact)

Sunday, March 25, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Everyone else has become accustomed to diminished expectations up here, so why can't the banks?

That was the message of a gimmicky event held by the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, which last week held a protest of a push for a $44 million tax cut for banks.

PLAN's Jan Gilbert held up a giant cardboard credit card with "Wells Fargo" and "Bank of America" stamped on it, while Bob Fulkerson, also of PLAN, hacked away at it with garden shears. (Tellingly, it was much harder than he seemed to expect, so he finally just ripped it in half with his hands.)

With the help of Gov. Jim Gibbons and 10 Republican senators, led by Joe Heck of Henderson, banks are trying to repeal a tax that over the next two years is expected to raise $44 million for the state.

They say that banks were unfairly hit in the 2003 tax increase, and that they've had to pass on the cost to customers.

The $44 million number is inconvenient, however, because state revenue for the next two years is coming in $40 million to $50 million short, maybe more.

The measure will have a tough time passing the Democratic-controlled Assembly.

Democratic Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce of District 4 was blunt in her skepticism recently: "I look at the state of Nevada and I say to myself, 'What needs to be fixed? Who out there is suffering?' And boy, bankers never popped into my mind."

Despite the shortfall, Gibbons has moved to protect his tax break by looking for reductions in agency budgets.

In the first open battle between Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, a Las Vegas Democrat, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, a Reno Republican, a committee declined to let the state Department of Motor Vehicles spend $80,000 to get a head start on the Real-ID program. That program comes from a federal law that forces motorists to visit the offices of the state agency and produce birth certificates or other documents to show they are residents.

Buckley said the Legislature should wait to see whether there are more options. Raggio wanted to go ahead. He lost. It was relatively minor and meaningless, but no doubt the old warrior Raggio took notice.

The dustup occurred in a legislative session that is moving slowly. But the Legislature can't necessarily be blamed in what has become a season of distractions.

Democrats are focused on their presidential caucus, especially over the weekend, as their candidates have been in Las Vegas. Republicans are in a fever to move up their own caucus to the same day as the Democrats', Jan. 19 .

That has led to an open fight between Republican Party leaders, who didn't want to move it up, and a little grass-roots brush fire led by activist Chuck Muth, who pushed for the move.

Muth seems the probable winner.

The FBI also is gumming things up a bit in the capital. Legislators and lobbyists expressed hope last week for a swift resolution of the FBI investigation into Gibbons' relationship with his friend defense contractor Warren Trepp.

Without some resolution, lawmakers fear, getting the people's business done quickly will be harder.