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The full senate meets to vote on the “Race to the Top” education funding bill during the second day of the special legislative session Wednesday, February 24, 2010 in Carson City. The bill passed and faces a veto in its current form from Gov. Jim Gibbons.
Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
Bill Raggio
Gov. Jim Gibbons
Sun archives
- Democrats: Trim education cuts to 5 percent (2-24-10)
- Gibbons adds to agenda, says session will end by Sunday night (2-24-10)
- Relationship between Gibbons, Raggio shows strain on Day 2 (2-24-10)
- Plan to use cameras to catch uninsured motorists appears dead (2-24-10)
- Gibbons’ budget plan risky in an election year (2-24-10)
- Anti-tax ideology tests Republicans (2-24-10)
- Gibbons pulls senior staff from legislative hearings (2-23-10)
- Gibbons denies, then admits taking texting friend to D.C. (2-23-10)
- Lawmakers to tackle water rights during special session (2-23-10)
- Proposal to close state prison meets opposition (2-23-10)
- Budget crunchtime: Lawmakers set to tackle historic deficit (2-23-10)
Sun Coverage
For all their differences over cuts and fees, Nevada’s Legislature has found an unlikely unifying force: Gov. Jim Gibbons.
On Wednesday, Gibbons rankled members of both parties by amending his special session proclamation, adding a firm deadline for the Legislature to adjourn: 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
Although Gibbons’ staff says the governor has the authority to end the session, the legislators think he cannot legally adjourn them. Furthermore, Gibbons soured his diminished goodwill with Senate Republicans by attacking longtime leader Bill Raggio.
The governor targeted Raggio on a public-affairs TV show Tuesday, saying the Reno legislator had not attended most of the meetings he and his staff have held on the budget crisis. On Wednesday, Raggio fired back on the Senate floor, saying that he had indeed attended more meetings than Gibbons.
“Either the governor’s memory is failing or he has been misinformed, or he is intentionally distorting the facts,” Raggio said.
Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said Gibbons had “crossed the line” with his remarks. “We rally as a team of senators, no matter what party you are from, when one of our folks is attacked. We are here to work together and not have those kind of disagreements.”
Lawmakers seemed to send that message Wednesday by passing a bill that would allow Nevada to apply for federal Race to the Top education money. They did so unanimously in the Assembly and by a veto-proof majority in the Senate.
The governor’s spokesman Dan Burns said Gibbons would veto the bill.
To be sure, legislators have a long way to go in the special session. The Republican caucus had an internal fight over the amount of increased fees they could support while Assembly Democrats and Republicans battled over cuts in education.
But by setting a deadline, Gibbons has given lawmakers an incentive to find common ground and solve the state’s $887 million budget crisis quickly.
The Legislature could challenge the governor if it can’t complete its business and needs more time, but such a fight would play out as an ugly constitutional showdown in state Supreme Court. Lawmakers want to solve the crisis without that kind of spectacle, which would stoke public outrage and lead to comparisons to the political paralysis in Washington, D.C.
Plus, lawmakers have other matters to attend to.
As one veteran lobbyist put it: “The reality is Sunday was probably their end deadline anyway. They want to be back raising money, back to their jobs, back to their homes.”
Practically, Gibbons’ actions further isolate him from the legislative branch. Last month, he angered lawmakers when he issued an order that state workers under his authority not speak to legislators without his approval. Gibbons’ staff said the move was necessary because legislators were asking time-consuming questions that distracted agencies from state business.
Politically, the exercise of executive power serves to combat the notion that Gibbons had been an absentee governor in his first term. He has taken hits from the Legislature and his political opponents for what they describe as hands-off leadership in his first term.
Political observers say Gibbons, who faces a tough Republican primary, is reasserting himself with the help of an aggressive senior staff. His actions this week also presage a likely campaign theme: Gibbons versus the establishment.
“He’s running against the establishment even though he’s at the head of that establishment,” said Eric Herzik, head of the political science department at UNR. “Jim Gibbons seems to be his own party these days.”
Herzik said such a strategy is wrought with challenges, but could resonate with conservative voters, particularly those drawn to the anti-government Tea Party movement. He has vilified the Legislature for overriding his veto last year and raising taxes.
Democrats and Republicans alike see the gubernatorial currents in the special session and are working aggressively to muddy Gibbons’ conservative credentials. Lawmakers have repeatedly drawn attention to his proposals to increase certain fees for state agencies and reduce tax deductions for the mining industry. Gibbons is campaigning on the theme that he has honored his pledge not to raise taxes.
This week, he removed some of the proposed fees in his revised budget plan. His staff said the moves were not political, but the result of his policy to only levy fees on parties that agree to the increases.
As for setting a deadline, Burns called attention to the cost of holding a special session — $50,000 a day — and said the governor was simply exerting his constitutional authority. He said legislators were playing politics by needling Gibbons’ staff on fees.
“There are members of the Legislature and members of the media who want to poison the atmosphere around Gov. Gibbons for no reason other than spite,” Burns said. “That’s bad politics and it doesn’t serve the state of Nevada.”
Still, Herzik said shifts like that on fees could undercut Gibbons’ message.
“Strong leadership is often consistent leadership,” he said.
Sun reporter David McGrath Schwartz contributed to this story.
These guys and gals are ALL worthless, and are not in touch with their constituents. Come election time they will be unemployed..
So rather than use Gibbons as a scapegoat and blame him for reducing spending in a number of areas, blame him for causing tax increases, blame him for needing all this change in how this state spends its money...instead their answer is...status quo? everything is fine? tax a couple industries and all will be okay? and now complain about being told they they have to meet and get the state finances in order? Are they really that out of touch?
I second environprotectors comments. Way out of touch, they all need to be replaced. VOTE OUT THE INCUMBENTS and keep doing so until we have a group of representatives that represent the legal citizens of Nevada, the citizens, get it? Get the unions out of government, it is like a cancer spreading throughout the teachers, the DMV, the police, the nurses and doctors at UMC, the list goes on. If the government employs enough people, those people will be beholden to the incumbents and will not vote them out, hence big government. What is supposed to be ours is now theres. I cannot go 4x4ing in the desert on the outskirts of LV because it may stir up some dust, but the police and other government vehicles can. i need to pay to visit lake mead, you get the point. We are going to be fee'd, taxed to poverty.
Comment removed by moderator. Comment was off-topic.
I agree we need to oust the bums and start over, but who voted them in? We did. And why, because the average citizen can't run against these career politicians. Can't compete whith the money that backs them.
So, time for campaign finance reform. That's the only way you are going to get fresh blood with fresh ideas in elected office.
Keep the status quo, and we just get more of the same - elected officers that owe the "somebody's" and the only way to pay them back is with their votes.
is that little gibbons monkey just plain old lazy???
does he simply just not want to work beyond sunday???
"He's running against the establishment even though he's at the head of that establishment," said Eric Herzik, head of the political science department at UNR. "Jim Gibbons seems to be his own party these days."
Gym Gibbons, party of ONE... Your table is ready!
EVERYONE has jumped off the listing ship USS GibbonsMonkey; and nobody cares if there's a life raft... the stench is too unbearable!
The governor does not have the constitutional authority to order the legislature out of session. Jim Gibbons is not a King, although he may believe that he qualifies. He cannot bully around an equal branch of government. While he is governor, he is only one of over sixt people that WE elected to deal with this kind of an emergency. To act as Gibbons has is, at the least, disrespectful of the voters. At the most, it is a constitutional violation and he should be instructed as such by the Nevada Supreme Court.
Actually I believe the legislators are listening to their constituents and their constituents' priorities while the legislators are considering tough decisions. The governor gets cranky any time anyone, his own party included, disagrees with his actions to run Nevada completely into the ground. Obviously the governor's campaign fund and low poll ratings reflect practically no support for him or his nonexistent leadership.
Do you know how extreme your opinions have to be in order to get this group to agree? The Governor is really out of touch with the entire process. I'm glad that legislators are up there doing the hard work and getting it done.
They are getting rid of cameras in AZ.
CJJAMES said:
"The governor does not have the constitutional authority to order the legislature out of session. Jim Gibbons is not a King, although he may believe that he qualifies. He cannot bully around an equal branch of government. While he is governor, he is only one of over sixt people that WE elected to deal with this kind of an emergency. To act as Gibbons has is, at the least, disrespectful of the voters. At the most, it is a constitutional violation and he should be instructed as such by the Nevada Supreme Court."
Actually, wrong. He has SPECIFIC constitutional authority to do so. The LV Sun posted a copy of the AG opinion from several years ago that states so:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/ralston...
The solution is simple Nevadans. Vote out the foxes once and for all from the hen house. Vote indpendent/nonpartisan this november for all offices that have a candidate representing the above. All this talk on here with your new technology will not change anything: voting them out will.