As Legislature opens, kindly speeches hint at future clashes over budget

By Anjeanette Damon, David McGrath Schwartz

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011 | 2 a.m.

A hole in the state budget roughly a third of the size of current spending? Nary a word.

A redistricting fight that could lead to important policy being held hostage by political tit for tat? Wasn’t mentioned.

A looming battle over public employees’ pay and benefits and collective bargaining rights? Ignored.

On the opening day of the 76th Legislature, lawmakers skipped the issues that will likely define the next 119 days in favor of friendly speeches about working together, commemorative photos with proud family members and symbolic gestures.

In their only significant legislative act, lawmakers voted to voluntarily cut their salaries for the session by 4.6 percent — the amount of pay state workers have done without this biennium because of furloughs.

The savings for a state $2.2 billion in the hole: $25,000.

The message: See, we will share in the sacrifice too.

Ceremonial committees made up of three legislators carried messages between the houses, escorted the Nevada Supreme Court chief justice as he entered the chambers to swear in the lawmakers and informed the governor that the Legislature is open for business.

The pomp of antiquated traditions gave the proceedings the feel of a fiddling contest held as Nevada burns.

But not far below the pleasant surface were the tensions that will shape the session.

First and foremost: the budget, and whether Gov. Brian Sandoval’s cuts can and should stand, or whether the Legislature will raise taxes to lessen the impact on state services.

Despite kind words for each other from Republican and Democratic leaders, the subtext of the opening day speeches foreshadowed a difficult fight as Democratic lawmakers take on the popular new governor’s budget.

Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, called for civility to rule the day, adding that he and other Democrats agree with much of what Sandoval proposed in his $5.8 billion budget.

But then this: “Now it is the job of the Legislature to determine if the sacrifices placed in the scales to balance the budget can be sustained. Or, if they are too much to ask of Nevada’s citizens who have already lost so much in the recession.”

The message between the lines: Mr. Governor, we aren’t going to simply roll over and hand you the no-new-taxes budget you want, not when it cuts this deeply into education.

In his opening remarks in the state’s upper house, Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, congratulated Sandoval on his election and made clear that he wishes the governor well.

“All of us in this chamber, all of us in this state — no matter his or her political affiliation — want you to succeed,” he said.

Horsford concluded by saying: “For decades, other leaders were unable to make the change our state so desperately needs. Instead of opting for Band-Aids and sunsetting fixes” — what the Legislature did in 2009 — “our opportunity is to tackle the structural challenges needed so that our businesses and the people of Nevada can thrive.”

The subtext: We need to raise taxes and reform the tax structure so that businesses perceived to pay little to the state start contributing.

Oceguera and Horsford, who have appeared to take divergent approaches to the budget, both vowed long-term solutions instead of the temporary budget fixes that lawmakers have relied on to balance spending and revenue through one regular session and four special sessions.

Assembly Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, also paid homage to the goal of working together. He noted that term limits had emptied the Legislature not only of important institutional knowledge, but also long-standing grudges that often impeded compromise.

But he had his own signals to send.

“Our constituents’ demands are very different than what the other side of the aisle is looking for,” he said shortly after delivering unscripted opening remarks on the Assembly floor, in which he said the state’s future prosperity depends on enacting meaningful reforms now.

What are he and his Republican colleagues looking for? Significant changes to the retirement benefits of public employees and a softening of the collective bargaining rights enjoyed by local government workers.

Still, even as the two sides alluded to lines in the sand that will define their negotiating positions, the contours of a possible compromise were also evident.

While Republicans in both houses put out a statement last week supporting Sandoval’s cuts-only budget, Goicoechea implied his position is negotiable depending on the reforms Democrats agree to on those public employee issues.

“At this point, we support the governor’s budget and there are no tax increases in it,” he said.

He waited a beat and repeated: “At this point.”

In the opening minutes of the Legislature, Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, who presides over the state Senate as its president, thanked a middle-school class for its rendition of the state song, “Home Means Nevada.” The children, he said, were a reminder of why they are here.

Krolicki then used the well-worn it’s-all-about-the-children line, adding this bit of dark foreshadowing: “We might need you all at Day 119.”