State senator calls Las Vegas prostitution policing a sham

By J. Patrick Coolican (contact), David McGrath Schwartz (contact)

Friday, April 10, 2009 | 2 a.m.

During a debate about taxing legal prostitution, state Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, committed what is known in politics as a “Kinsley Gaffe,” named for the witty writer who said a gaffe in Washington, D.C., is when someone tells the truth.

Schneider scoffed at moral qualms to taxing legal prostitution, citing the unspoken acceptance of prostitution in Clark County, where, at least officially, it’s not legal.

“It’s almost like a joke. There’s nothing being done to stop it. I don’t see a big dragnet to stop it.”

He continued: “We can’t get all morally high and say, ‘Hey, we shouldn’t be doing this and let’s turn our head.’ ”

He noted advertising on the Strip for “Girls to your room” and massage parlors in his district.

“I’m not naive about girls to your room and what that means. We’ve got pages and pages in the Yellow Pages (for escorts). If we’re gonna be moral about this ... and say ‘let’s not tax prostitution,’ I guess we can stand on that. We’re opposed to it, but we condone it, it appears. We don’t have the courage to legalize it or go shut it down,” he said.

His colleague state Sen. Terry Care disputed that police in Southern Nevada aren’t trying to stop prostitution. “I think it’s inaccurate to say it’s condoned. It’s perhaps a losing battle, but I know those efforts are ongoing,” he said.

The proposal to tax legal prostitution died in committee.

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Considering legislators stopped getting paid a week ago, you have to admire the perseverance of the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee.

The topic was sewer laterals — a matter of fierce passion among public policy folks, but not exactly something you would tout on a campaign flier — and the hearing lasted well into the night as the committee attempted to beat a deadline for passing bills out of committee.

A vote didn’t come until nearly 11 p.m. Wednesday.

The sewer operators, which include Clark County, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson, and almost all utilities, including Southwest Gas, testified in favor of the compromise bill, which would require sewer operators to try to locate sewer lines and charge fees to the contractors digging up the streets. Sewer laterals connect a business or home’s plumbing system to the sewer line under the street.

The utilities and sewer operators had been at an impasse. Sewer operators had argued a requirement to locate more than 700,000 sewer laterals would cost more than $100 million. Utilities argued not knowing where the laterals are is a public safety issue — sewer laterals could be inadvertently broken when new gas lines are installed. (Sixteen houses have exploded over the past decade when gas leaked into the residence through a punctured sewer lateral, according to the Nevada Public Utility Commission.)

The committee passed the compromise with only Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, voting no.

The committee’s chairwoman, Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said, “I know not one person here is saying, ‘Yeah, I won.’ I’m sure you all feel you gave up something.”

•••

State Sen. Bob Coffin offered a bill to the Senate Taxation Committee to raise the diesel fuel tax by 12 cents, in a move seen as a direct hit on the trucking industry. Coffin wants the money for Nevada’s roads, which are thought by many legislators and transportation experts to be underfunded.

“The trucking industry has been getting away with murder for years,” he said.

Coffin presented a study of the Nevada Transportation Department, completed by a private consulting firm, showing that operators of trucks — and heavy trucks in particular — underpay for roads, while passenger vehicles pay more than their fair share.

“It’s such an old story I’m sick of it ... But you know who isn’t it? Our constituents.”

The trucking industry disputes the study and noted that trucking is an important industry to Nevada because nearly all our goods and services must be trucked in.

The committee voted to kill the plan.