Legislative negotiations continue over state budget

By David McGrath Schwartz

Sunday, May 29, 2011 | 9:49 p.m.

CARSON CITY -- Republicans and Democrats continued negotiating Sunday night and planned to meet again Monday as they wrangled over the budget.

Republicans and Democrats have proposed balanced budgets, said Assembly Speaker John Oceguera. But the proposals are different.

The spending proposed by Gov. Brian Sandoval is about $313 million less, $6.46 billion in total, than the spending approved by Democrats in the Legislature.

Though Sandoval has agreed to extend taxes passed in 2009 that are set to expire July 1, the sides disagreed over how much to raise.

Democrats revived Assembly Bill 78, which would tighten rules on how businesses register with the secretary of state. The bill had died on a 9-12 vote earlier this month, but was brought back Sunday on a party-line vote.

The Legislature was looking for other pots of money as well. That includes unclaimed money left in slot machines. Currently, casinos keep the unredeemed tickets, which the industry says equals about $30 million to $50 million a year.

These are some of the other key issues:

• What taxes to sunset and how much to spend. Sandoval said he would only support extending some of the taxes passed in 2009. That included an increase in the sales tax, an increase in the payroll tax businesses pay, an increase in vehicle registration fees and an increase in the business registration fee.

• Republicans want a variety of changes to how government works. The biggest gap, according to sources, comes on the issue of construction defects. Democrats accuse Republican Assembly members, some of whom are contractors, of self-interest because some have been sued over construction defects. Republicans accuse Democrats of being unwilling to defy the trial attorneys, a key ally.