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Is anyone in charge in Nevada?
Friday, March 13, 2009 | 2 a.m.
SUN FILE PHOTOS
Clockwise from top left: Gov. Jim Gibbons, Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford
THE GOVERNOR:
Said he won’t sign the room tax hike in his own budget, sending a mixed message to lawmakers.
THE LEGISLATURE:
Need for more taxes an open secret, but its prominent members remain conspicuously silent in public.
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In Today's Sun
Sun Blogs
Sun Archives
- Gibbons counts on tax increase, but won't sign it (3-11-2009)
- Room tax hike: Sun's winners and losers (3-11-2009)
- Senate passes hotel room tax hike (3-10-2009)
- State Senate delays vote on room taxes (3-9-2009)
- Nevada Assembly OKs bill to raise room tax (2-24-2009)
Bad Timing?
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del.icio.usBoxed In?
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Gov. Jim Gibbons was a weak presence in Carson City before he announced this week that he would not sign a room tax increase included in his own budget, according to lawmakers and political observers.
The angry response to that decision is further evidence that legislators, even in his own party, have turned away from his leadership, they say.
The observers say the question now is who, if anyone, is leading the state, which is confronting a $2.36 billion budget deficit, rising foreclosures and a sputtering gaming industry. The answer that many offer is troubling.
“I don’t see anyone leading the state — there’s a vacuum,” said Guy Rocha, the respected state historian who retired as state archivist this year. “I’m not sure who will step up. Everyone has been cautious. I haven’t seen anyone take the bull by the horns.”
As governor, Gibbons is required by the constitution to propose a budget. His staffers defend his leadership, saying that unlike legislative leaders, the governor has at least put forward a plan.
However, what some found so disheartening this week was that Gibbons seemed to distance himself from his own budget. Lawmakers said they had approved the room tax hike with the understanding he would sign it.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford called Gibbons’ decision “cowardice.” Sen. Bill Raggio, the Senate’s minority leader and a venerable Republican leader for three decades, said “I and others have been mislead.”
Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley said the governor “wanted it both ways,” and the Assembly’s minority leader, Heidi Gansert, said she was “surprised and disappointed.”
“I’ve always been straightforward that I do not support a tax increase,” Gibbons told the Sun. “I’ve always told them that I will not stand in the way of a vote of the public. That doesn’t mean I have to sign onto it, vote for it, or anything else.”
Fred Lokken, a political science professor at Truckee Meadows Community College, said the room tax episode portrayed the governor as inconsistent and disengaged.
“Why did he want to become governor when he does not want to govern?” Lokken said.
Chuck Muth, a conservative anti-tax activist who has been advising the state Republican Party, called on Gibbons to resign.
No one has emerged as a vocal leader to fill the void left by Gibbons.
When the governor unveiled his budget on Jan. 15, with 6 percent pay cuts for teachers and state workers and 36 percent cuts in higher education, some state observers expected Buckley to quickly release an alternative.
But Democratic legislative leaders have yet to propose a plan.
“If Gibbons is not showing forthright leadership, the Legislature should step up,” said Eric Herzik, a University of Nevada, Reno, political science professor. “Leadership seems to be in short supply in both the governor and Legislature.”
Buckley, who spent months on a statewide tour last year discussing Nevada’s woeful rankings in a host of areas and listening to public input, is in the best position. Yet although the inevitability of tax increases is an open secret in Carson City, Buckley has continued to refuse to say that raising taxes may be a part of the state budget solution.
“Everyone is hanging back,” Rocha said. “I’m not sure why people are so tepid. But there’s an absence of power, and no one has decided yet to move forward with their agenda.”
Instead, Buckley and Horsford have followed a deliberate process.
Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said, “There are 63 (legislators) in the building elected to do the people’s business, and we’ve been doing it.”
The room tax, projected to raise $232 million over the next two years, “was the first in a series of difficult decisions the Legislature will have to make to prevent the disintegration of vital services,” he said.
Buckley also defended the process.
“The legislative leadership, Senate and Assembly, is deciding what can be cut and what we need to preserve as a state,” she said. After figuring how much the federal stimulus can help, “we will see what our options are.”
But Gibbons administration officials have mocked the Democrats as having a “plan for a plan.”
“We need fewer whiners standing on the side complaining, and more people bringing solid solutions to the problems of the state,” Gibbons told the Sun. “I’m waiting for the Democrats to bring their plan, their solution to the budget problems of the state of Nevada forward, bring them out to the light of the public.”
Democrats appear to be drawing from lessons learned in 2003, when Gov. Kenny Guinn came out before the session started to push a tax on gross receipts. The plan was picked apart, and although the state passed a large tax increase, the gross receipts tax died.
“We know from experience if we have to raise taxes, we have to be able to sell the need for it,” said Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno. “By the end of the session, you’ll look back and know who the leaders were.”
For now, the state appears “rudderless,” according to one lobbyist with ties to Democratic leadership.
“There’s only so much Buckley and Horsford and Raggio can do,” said the lobbyist, speaking anonymously for fear of alienating leadership. “They’re not the executive branch. There are only so many buttons they can push.”
Billy Vassiliadis, a lobbyist and chief executive of the advertising firm R&R Partners, said there is still time for leadership to emerge to address the state’s problems.
“The who, at least right now, is the Legislative leadership team, which includes the speaker, the majority leader, both minority leaders,” he said. Leadership will also come from “various industries, interest groups, associations and labor unions.”
“We’ll know by early June whether there is or isn’t” leadership, he said. If not, “we’re headed for disaster.”
Sun reporter J. Patrick Coolican and Sun Capital Bureau Chief Cy Ryan contributed to this story.
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This article says it more than ever. You cannot embarass a politician. They have no sense of duty, no conscience, no soul. The last sentence is only slightly wrong. We already are in a disaster.
How about a Governor with a backbone? If I put something in my budget, it goes without saying I support it. Gibbons' is yourtypical child, is ever his fault and I will constantly change his story to provide cover. With no support from the Gop, Dems or conservatives (Chuck Muth) do us all a favor and resign quietly. Perhaps now you can handle that working land in Elko.
This is yet one more example of the failures of Harry Reid. The guy is so busy with earmarking our tax dollars and trying to endanger our troops on the ground...he has no time for Nevadans. At least Gov Gordy is working hard for the taxpayer and the working folk.
Buckley's plan:
www.i_am_hiding_under_a_rock.com
Buckley's plan:
www.i_am_hiding_under_a_rock.com
I say budgetary problems should be ironed out in the Thunderdome. Two men/women enter, one leaves. We would also cut down on politicians, which is why I'm backing MasterBlaster for state senate.
Nevada is NOT without leadership. Gaming CORPORATIONS are leading Nevada, along with old special interest (i.e. "our interests") money. The state is like a small town, with a few large pockets, working through familiar backdoor channels.
Some economic diversification and diversity in gaming owners and operators (which hopefully is forthcoming soon through market forces) would bring new blood to public policy over time, and change some of the visible faces of state leadership.
Governor Guinn had the guts to do the right thing in 2003, and took the hits he knew he would take. That, IS leadership. So, let's see who surfaces this time, no matter the party.
From the article conservative(s) are calling on one of their own to resign, and the only persons commenting for the article outside public sector jobs are "lobbyists".
Is it lobbyists doing the work of government in Nevada. FOR corporations, with some move-in executives and shareholders abroad.
The State of Nevada has BIG, LARGE credibility issues regarding leadership, both at home and certainly in Washington DC, because nobody wants to cross the chalk first on tax structure. Everyone has a hand in the till, not on the rudder.
When will people realize this is not a lack of leadership in Nevada. It's a destruction from Washington. If we don't do something to keep energy costs down we NEVER come back. Wholesale gasoline has risen 37% in the last month. Every time good economic news arises energy costs will suck it up. We cannot fix our economy when dollars from visitors don't exists. They can't pay their bills let alone come to what the President calls unacceptable extravagance. Look at the headline for Harrah's Corporation today.
We must demand energy production in America with American jobs and keep the money here.
hey nance, I didn't know Buckley was the Governor. Not a bad idea though. At least we'd have one that goes to work. And don't give me this crap that "at least the governor submitted a budget". Even HE won't stand behind the dog crap he put on paper.
As much as this jfnance32 character seems to be from another planet, they are hitting the point here. What is the point of electing a Democratic Legislature if they are not going to protect the very things we sent them to Carson to protect. Why not just let Gibbons gut the state. Hell, we might as not even have a state government, and follow the libertarian anti-tax zealots into chaos. Having "testified" before a legislative committee on the impacts of proposed budget cuts, they are as disinterested as they appear. Good luck to any of them, no matter their party affiliation, on winning re-election.
You can't expect a "loner" type of personality like Governor Jim to suddenly shed his persona and lead us down the path (whatever you the reader think the right path is). The guy is a pilot, having flown jets, and that type of individual is used to working alone. Let's vote for another type of personality in 2010, please???
"hey nance, I didn't know Buckley was the Governor"
The Governor presented his plan.
Here is Buckley's plan:
www.i_am_hiding_under_a_rock.com.
The Nevada history is clear - the political power of the Nevada people has fallen victum to a system controlled by the elitist that has nearly nuetered the Legislative Branch and transfered most of the power to the Governor/King - and the King is in California doing what? Probably pursuing his predatory pass-time of gallantly searching for his next female victim!