David McGrath Schwartz

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Story Archive

Unceasing recession spurs more tax talk: Unemployment trust fund is drying up, and businesses might be asked to pitch in; Friday, Aug. 14, 2009; Nevada businesses are facing a possible doubling of the unemployment tax they pay the state to keep benefits flowing to laid-off workers. The tax increase would help Nevada avoid paying a hefty interest rate on a $1 billion loan from Washington.
Governor balks at shift of stimulus authority: Chief of staff’s comments ratchet up turf battle with legislators on oversight; Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009; The governor’s budget office — not someone in a job created by the Legislature — will coordinate use of the $2.2 billion in federal stimulus money coming to Nevada, Robin Reedy, Gov. Jim Gibbons’ chief of staff, said Tuesday.
$10 million approved to continue fighting Yucca: Official says funding needed because nuclear waste dump fight still not over; Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009; A state board approved spending $10 million during the next two years to continue the battle over Yucca Mountain, despite Congress and President Barack Obama slashing funding to pursue the proposed nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Rebecca Lambe: The force behind state Democrats' success: Reid credits her with turnaround, but she has her critics in the party; Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009; When Reid is asked who should get credit for the state party’s resurgence — 100,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, control of the state Senate and Assembly, a 12-point victory for Barack Obama in November — he largely points to a 38-year-old adviser and strategist virtually unknown outside Democratic inner circles.
Gibbons ready to tear at legislative patch: Critical of interim finance panel, he’s thinking about constitutional challenge; Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009; As governor, what do you do when a legislative committee, controlled by Democrats, gives you conniptions, moving staff positions out of your office and delaying the spending of stimulus dollars? You think about the nuclear option — challenging the constitutionality of the committee in court.
Legislature reins in Gibbons; Democrats cite incompetence: Frustrated by governor’s lack of leadership, lawmakers scrutinize, alter his stimulus-funding requests; Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009; The Legislature has sent a clear message to the governor: We don’t trust you to do your job. Democratic lawmakers on Monday took unprecedented steps to control the role of the executive branch, according to lawmakers from both parties.
Committee vote delays $10M in stimulus money: Monday, Aug. 3, 2009; More than $10 million in federal stimulus spending will be delayed at least 45 days after a legislative committee on Monday rejected a state plan to weatherize homes.
Pilot’s grounding costing state time, money: Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009; A year ago, Jim Richardson was piloting the state plane, ferrying elected officials and senior management between Carson City, Las Vegas and the rural counties in the state’s Cessna Citation. Then he found himself grounded, demoted to a job carrying 120-pound bags of rocks and earning about half of his pilot’s salary.
Danger on road ahead: Nevada survived 2009’s yawning budget gap with one-time fixes. Without those, 2011’s outlook looks increasingly rocky; Thursday, July 30, 2009; The state leaned heavily on temporary tax increases and one-time federal stimulus funding to bridge the state’s $1.4 billion budget gap this year, but those stopgap moves have led to forecasts of an even larger deficit in 2011.
Federal energy plan approved, but criticism of delays lingers: Sunday, July 26, 2009; Political leaders from both parties have often said Nevada is in a race with other states to attract renewable energy projects. Despite the bold talk, state government has lagged behind surrounding states in applying for millions in federal stimulus dollars for renewable energy and energy conservation projects.
Recovery moving slowly but steadily: Critics call stimulus a failure, but others see welcome progress; Friday, July 24, 2009; In a state where the ranks of the unemployed could fill one of Nevada’s largest cities, hiring a construction crew for highway paving or a few hundred schoolteachers doesn’t sound like much.
But it is beginning to add up. Putting Nevadans back to work under the economic recovery plan is happening, if slowly.
Conservationists question wildlife board appointment: Wednesday, July 22, 2009; Gov. Jim Gibbons hasn’t lost his knack for making controversial appointments. The governor has named to the Nevada Wildlife Commission Daryl Capurro, the former head of the state’s trucking industry association who left the group in 2006 amid allegations he used $116,000 in association money for personal purposes.
Numbers show Nevada is most ‘distressed’ state: Service providers caught between growing need, shrinking revenue; Monday, July 20, 2009; Nevada’s misery could be conveyed in a thousands individual stories — of layoffs, lost homes and vanishing customers. In the aggregate, the toll of the region’s economic turmoil can be measured in a series of staggering numbers.
With scant crew, Gibbons reelection campaign sets sail: Sunday, July 19, 2009; Undeterred by poor poll numbers and an empty campaign vault, Gov. Jim Gibbons insists to anyone who’ll listen that he’s running for reelection. And the campaign is starting to take shape.
State GOP prepares for ideological battle over taxes: Party’s split over fiscal policy is prompting Republicans to gird for primary fights; Sunday, July 19, 2009; We must destroy the party in order to save it. That seems to be the view of Nevada conservatives, who are ready for ideological combat across a series of Republican primaries next year. Conservative candidates, mostly from the state Assembly, are talking about running in Senate primaries next year against Republican candidates who they consider insufficiently conservative and ideological.
Gibbons bids adieu to senior staffers: Departures clear office of expertise, counsel at critical time for Nevada; Thursday, July 16, 2009; Gov. Jim Gibbons’ entire senior staff has in the past few weeks resigned or given notice of departure, including the final remnants of his original staff. On Wednesday, Mendy Elliott, Gibbons’ deputy chief of staff, became the latest to leave the governor’s office.
Lawmakers’ eyes widen at term limit vacancies: Host of Assembly members mull bids for seats in upper chamber of Legislature; Wednesday, July 8, 2009; Nevada voters who passed term limits in the 1990s might have imagined it would bring a clean sweep of veteran politicians from office. What they’re likely to get will instead look more like musical chairs.
Who killed campaign ﬁnance reform this time?: Lawmakers stopped just short of opening reporting process ranked among nation’s least transparent; Monday, July 6, 2009; Nevada’s campaign finance laws are written to favor incumbents and the special interests that fund them — and that won’t change any time soon. Let’s say a candidate is weighing a run against an incumbent and wants to know how much money the office-holder has.
Popular in their cities, could Reno or Las Vegas mayor be governor?: Saturday, July 4, 2009; Nevada’s two most colorful mayors, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, met a couple of weeks ago for a talk. After hours together in Goodman’s office, they emerged to give supporters a similar account of the meeting: If one is in, the other guy will support him.
Wait times climb at the DMV; Northern Nevada, you’re next: Monday, June 29, 2009; Few issues bring out the anger of Nevadans like a long wait at the DMV. For Southern Nevadans that irritation has been compounded by the knowledge that wait times here are as much as three times as long, on average, as in the rest of the state. That won’t be remedied any time soon because lawmakers were unable to fully fund a plan to bring more equity to the system because of the state’s austere fiscal situation.
A $16 artifact rich with significance: After a record 48 vetoes, Gov. Jim Gibbons proudly sending his well-used stamp of disapproval to the state museum; Thursday, June 25, 2009; Gov. Jim Gibbons’ tenure has, for better or worse, been memorable. Now a piece of it is museum-worthy. The hardest-working veto stamp in Nevada history, which Gibbons’ deployed a record 48 times, will be sent to the Nevada State Museum.
Next stop: Taxpayer bailout?: Private company can’t repay construction debt, says it’s seeking government money; Tuesday, June 23, 2009; The Las Vegas Monorail was sold as a privately funded solution to traffic woes on the Strip — a transit line built without tax dollars. Despite the promises of nine years ago, monorail officials now acknowledge they have quietly begun seeking public dollars in a bid to keep the financially troubled train running. “We’re looking at all potential funding sources,” a monorail official said.
On home defect legislation, lobbyists went to the wire: Some say there’s reason to believe a compromise can be achieved in 2011; Sunday, June 21, 2009; The construction industry had just captured a huge victory, pushing legislation through the state Senate that would limit the ability of homeowners to win settlements against developers for construction defects. Builders needed only a victory in the Assembly to save themselves millions in settlements and legal fees. Their lobbyists, gathered in the hallway of the state’s 1970s-era concrete slab of a Legislative Building on April 16, were ecstatic over the Senate vote.
Are you ready for ... a longer general election cycle?: Sunday, June 14, 2009; By creating a longer general election season, a new law will allow parties’ nominees to regroup and replenish their campaign coffers after brutal primary contests.
Governor's idle hands: Gibbons chose passive stance on bills he didn’t like: He let them become law without signing them; Friday, June 12, 2009; Nevada governors have always viewed bills from the Legislature as either or propositions: either sign it or veto it.
But Gov. Jim Gibbons chose a third route in handling some legislation this session — allowing seven bills to become law without his autograph.
The governor didn’t like the bills, but didn’t dislike them enough to veto them.
Furloughs creating staffing ‘nightmare,’ longer wait times: Mandated time off for state workers presents problems for some agencies; Wednesday, June 10, 2009; Lawmakers last month instituted a one-day-a-month furlough for state workers as a gentler money-saving alternative to the straight salary cut proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons.
How speaker corralled the final vote for partnerships: Loyalty to his Democratic ‘family’ overcame doubts of a Las Vegas lawmaker; Sunday, June 7, 2009; Once the governor’s veto of the domestic partnership bill was overridden in the Senate, observers assumed that the legislation would easily make it out of the Assembly — even though the bill had been approved originally without enough votes to override.
How we did: A look back at the session: Taxes and budget a big accomplishment, yet Legislature's great failure as well; Sunday, June 7, 2009; The legislative session was impossible. Lawmakers had no choice but to cut services and increase taxes, or see state services, especially education, all but shut down. The Las Vegas Sun reviews their actions on the budget, K-12 education, energy, health care, education policy, human rights, foreclosures, worker safety, F Street, the environment and public employees salaries and benefits. Legislators came in facing the largest deficit, as a proportion of the budget, in the nation.
Session evaluation: A winner, a loser, but mostly a wash: Sunday, June 7, 2009; When the boat has a gaping hole in it, no one on board is having much fun on the shuffleboard court. And so at the Nevada Legislature, which adjourned last week and suffered through the worst fiscal crisis in state history, there were few winners.
Session’s savior in his own eyes: Gibbons wants credit for stamping tax hike down, but fellow Republicans refuse to go along; Friday, June 5, 2009; Gov. Jim Gibbons was roundly dismissed Thursday by fellow Republicans who say he played no role in their effort to limit the tax increase approved over his veto. Lawmakers say Gibbons was not an active participant in the Legislature, which adjourned this week. In an interview Thursday with the Las Vegas Sun, Gibbons referred to the Democratic-led tax increase as “a job-killing, economy-crushing insult to working families."
New study will nix barrier, create another: In Catch-22, leaders get jump on tax overhaul, but so do critics; Thursday, June 4, 2009; Just eight years ago Nevada legislators voted to create a task force to oversee a study of the state’s tax structure and make recommendations for broadening the tax base.
Leaving door cracked for state tax overhaul: Committee is to review how state funds itself, make recommendations; Tuesday, June 2, 2009; For those hoping for big changes to the state’s tax structure, this could only be called a disappointing session. The Legislature passed a $781 million tax increase using existing taxes, in what many acknowledged was a “Band-Aid.”
Tax hike, vetoes and economic woes define session: Tempers flare in final minutes as lawmakers near adjournment; Tuesday, June 2, 2009; CARSON CITY – The Nevada Legislature has closed but it will be remembered for passing the largest tax increase in history, its battles with Gov. Jim Gibbons and Democrats being in charge of both houses for the first time since 1991. The Assembly ended its business at 11:56 p.m. Monday. The Senate shut down at 12:27 a.m. Tuesday. There were moments of pandemonium at the end.
Jim Gibbons: Gov. Veto: He's set the state record for vetoes. Some were expected; others have Carson City surprised, even perplexed; Sunday, May 31, 2009; Vetopalooza. That is what punch-drunk legislators and lobbyists are calling the flurry of vetoes by Gov. Jim Gibbons as the legislative session nears its end. The vetoes have come in batches big and small —42 as of midday Saturday.
Errors bill had support of hospitals: Sunday, May 31, 2009; Lobbyists and lawmakers are scratching their heads over a number of Gov. Jim Gibbons’ 42 vetoes, among them his snub of Senate Bill 319. Health care advocates and hospitals signed off on the legislation, which they saw as a way to improve health care in the state.
In their words, lawmakers leaving with pride, regrets: Term limits, approved by voters in 1996, will force from office 17 lawmakers; Sunday, May 31, 2009; The Las Vegas Sun asked the legislators who are possibly serving the final days of their final session to look back on their time in Carson City and share a memorable story, accomplishment or regret.
Senate overrides Gibbons' veto of $781 million tax package: Gibbons criticizes 'liberal leadership,' vetoes 31st bill this session; Thursday, May 28, 2009; The Senate overrode Gov. Jim Gibbons' veto of a $781 million tax package Thursday night. After the clerk read Gibbons' veto message, where he warned the Legislature of setting a "dangerous precedent," the Senate voted 17-4 to pass the bill anyway, the same vote as when it originally passed.
Obama here for the sunshine: As president applauds Nevada's green efforts, two bills to foster industry's growth make their way through Carson City; Thursday, May 28, 2009; Some people visit Las Vegas for the sights. Others, for the sounds.
But Wednesday, President Barack Obama said he came here for the sun, touring a solar array at Nellis Air Force Base, the largest facility of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
Sen. Amodei’s actions may foreshadow run at Reid: Thursday, May 28, 2009; State Sen. Mark Amodei has during the final weeks of the legislative session made floor speeches against loosening ethics rules, railed against unequal treatment of state functions in the Legislature’s budget and, unlike a majority of his fellow Republican senators, voted against the $781 million tax increase.
County commissioner resigns temporary position: Wednesday, May 27, 2009; Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly has resigned his temporary state position coordinating green job training programs in Southern Nevada, after press reports about the $60,000 contract, said Larry Mosley, director of the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
How mining will escape Session ’09 unscathed: Backroom deals for votes helped prevent industry tax increase, for now; Wednesday, May 27, 2009; The gold mining industry began the legislative session like some 19th-century prospector who got lucky: Everyone outside the mining camp jealously eyed his nuggets, and he slept with one eye open and a hand on a revolver.
GOP ceded to chamber in budget demands: Republicans adopted business lobby’s agenda as conditions on tax hikes; Sunday, May 24, 2009; “In my opinion, the chamber of commerce dictated the last three days” of negotiations on the tax package, said Dennis Mallory, head of the Association of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents state workers.
Republicans take the pot in final hand: Veteran Raggio uses all his leverage to extract concessions from majority; Saturday, May 23, 2009; Senate Republicans scored a resounding victory here Friday, winning a set of concessions from Democrats that they have been demanding for months in exchange for agreeing to a $780 million tax increase. Republicans in the state Senate were often the only legislators here openly acknowledging the need for new taxes, and all along they said they would agree to a tax package only under certain conditions.
Final budget nearly struck: Why the Legislature will reach an agreement before time runs out; Friday, May 22, 2009; There is, of course, no guarantee that legislators won’t blow the deadline in the final minutes. But Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said Thursday that he thought the sides were close to a deal, with only two small issues standing in the way of an agreement on public employee benefit and bargaining changes.
Lawmakers reach agreement on employee benefits: Thursday, May 21, 2009; Legislative leaders appeared to reach a tentative agreement on reforms for public employees benefits Thursday evening, clearing the way for the passage of spending and tax bills.
Horsford keeps Senate late into the night: Majority leader issues 'call of the house' to hunt down missing lawmakers; Thursday, May 21, 2009; CARSON CITY -- The brinksmanship of the 2009 legislative session went to a whole new level in the wee hours Thursday when Sen. Steven Horsford used procedural rules to call recalcitrant senators to the floor at 2:30 a.m. Thursday.
Public worker issues blocking budget deal: Thursday, May 21, 2009; Democrats and Republicans remained at odds late Wednesday on the last disputed points in the way of a budget deal -- proposed reforms of public employee pensions, retiree health benefits and collective bargaining rules for local governments and their employee unions.
Raggio back in vote as lawmakers stay late: Wednesday, May 20, 2009; CARSON CITY -- The Legislature is expected to meet late into Wednesday night, as questions still swirl over who will abstain from voting on a tax increase because of potential conflicts and legislative leaders continue to hammer out changes to public employee benefits. "There's a great deal of tension," said Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas.
Senators hear early morning testimony on tax bill: MGM Mirage spokesman says budget cuts alone aren't enough; Wednesday, May 20, 2009; CARSON CITY - The $781 million tax package was heard by all Nevada senators in a hearing that stretched into the opening minutes of Wednesday morning.
Pols observe: Be careful what you tax for: Proposed hikes are scoured for unintended consequences; Wednesday, May 20, 2009; Pieces of the Legislature’s $780 million tax plan have been released in the waning days of an already compressed session. Lawmakers, lobbyists and state staff are scrambling to vet the potential results of the tax increases.