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Nevada's special session off to rocky start

Page Last Updated: Wednesday February 24, 2010 9:03am PST

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, speaks at the special session Tuesday.

Negotiations between lawmakers and the governor's office broke down on the first day of the twenty-sixth Legislative special session Tuesday.

Although legislators were in contact with the governor's Chief of Staff, Robin Reedy, lawmakers will be negotiating, with or without Governor Jim Gibbons.

"In the 2009 session, we were able to reach agreement on a legislative solution that balanced the budget without the governor's participation, and if that's what it comes to now, we'll do it again," said state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas.

Horsford came out swinging Tuesday afternoon; essentially saying that lawmakers will pass their own budget, regardless of whether Gibbons wields his famous veto stamp or not.

"The agreement with the legislature is still very much in place," Horsford said. "We are making great strides towards a solution. What is disconcerting about the governor is that his position keeps changing by the day. He's proposing a tax on mining deductions, but says he won't consider any other fees to fund other parts of state government."

A solution is expected to include increased gaming fees, mining will pay more and banks could end up paying a price each time they foreclose on a Nevadan.

"It just seems poetic justice with the foreclosures just wreaking havoc in our community, yet they also contribute towards our shortfall and help us prevent these massive cuts to education," said Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas.

Buckley says lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and in both houses are working together to come up with additional revenue sources to shore up the shortfall, but Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, seemed to be singing a slightly different tune.

"Our caucus is really focused on cutting right now," Gansert said. "We believe we need to cut substantially to reset the baseline budget moving in to 2011. So right now we're dealing with a nine-hundred dollar million hole. That hole will become two billion dollars or more by next session, which is less than 12 months away."

Gansert says her caucus has made no promises when it comes to revenue generation.
Of course, with a supermajority in the Assembly, Democrats don't necessarily need consensus from the Assembly Republicans.

It is a different story in the Senate, where Democrats need Republicans to get the two-thirds necessary to override a governor veto.

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COMMENTS

February 24, 2010 12:16pm PST

Mark as Offensive

I am not sure how continuing to cut helps the economy. More cuts to workers means less people to use private business. That means more private businesses go under or lay people off. It is a domino effect that puts more and more people out of work. I know there are a lot of people that say "so what if others lose their jobs".If all you care about is yourself, fine. But it will effect all of us eventually.