Editorial: Ensign vote a flip-flop

Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007 | 7:04 a.m.

Sen. John Ensign has joined Gov. Jim Gibbons and the 2007 Legislature in turning heel and running away from Nevada's crisis in transportation funding.

Facing a $5 billion deficit for critically needed highway and road projects over the next eight years, the governor and Legislature this year wilted in the face of reality - that some new and increased taxes are inevitable.

So they approved a plan dependent on existing tax money and a lot of borrowing to raise just $1 billion, leaving the state in desperate need of every federal transportation tax dollar it can get.

As the Senate's Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill was readied this summer, Ensign, R-Nev., worked on his own and with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to include $12.3 million for Nevada.

Altogether, including what Reid was able to insert, the bill included $20 million for Nevada, most of it for road, highway and other infrastructure projects.

But then Ensign also wilted. First he voted against an amendment that would have added $1 billion in federal money for bridge repairs across the country, including $2.5 million for Nevada.

Then, astonishingly, he voted against the whole bill.

John Lopez, Ensign's chief of staff, said Nevadans appreciate the senator's refusal to vote for bills that he thinks are excessively costly just because they include some home-state projects. He said Ensign supports transportation spending, but could not support other spending in the $104.6 billion bill, including that for public housing and Amtrak.

Asked why the senator would limit spending for American communities while supporting unlimited funding for rebuilding Iraq, Lopez said, "The senator believes we are engaged in a long-term war against extremism, and that winning there will bring peace and prosperity to the American people for generations to come. "

Fortunately, most senators thought American taxpayers would like to see at least a fair portion of their money go toward their own communities and passed the bill by a vote of 88-7.

That Ensign did not vote with the majority - and for Nevada - is shameful.