And We Have a Budget...

It's ugly...

Gov. Jim Gibbons and Nevada legislative leaders announced at a news conference in front of the legislative building this evening that a final deal had been reached to close a budget deficit that ended up being about $805 million. But they warned that recession-plagued Nevada still faces tough times ahead.

“No one likes everything in this” deal, Gibbons said. “Everyone had to yield something, and everyone came to the table.” [...]

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley — who kicked off the session on Tuesday urging the Legislature to reduce the cut to education — said the state also managed to avoid some of what she called the worst cuts to health and human services. But she added that the state’s financial system needs to be overhauled.

“I think we need to tear down the financial structure we have now and start over,” said Buckley, who is term-limited and ending her service in the Legislature.

For his part, state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford warned that the “challenge ahead is just as great,” and said the next Legislature, which meets in 2011, could face a 50 percent reduction without new revenue. He challenged “those corporations that were not able to be part of this solution” to be part of the next. It was a reference to the casino industry and other businesses, which flatly refused in a Senate hearing to agree to contributing more to help the state solve its deficit problem. (Nonetheless, the final budget plan includes an increase in the fee for new casino licenses.) [...]

Among other things, the final budget plan includes:

A reduction in the cut to K-12 education from $211 million to $116.8 million.
A reduction in higher education from $76 million to $46 million.
Eliminating a list of proposed cuts to services for the elderly, children and the disabled.
Putting most state offices on a four-day, 10-hour work week.
Cutting state contracts by $10 million.
Avoiding further pay cuts to state employees pay or benefits.
“Sweeping” state boards, commissions and agencies for nearly $200 million.
Raising the per-claim mining fee, based on the number of mining claims a person or corporation has filed. The new fees will be $70, $85 and $195.

And as you can see, there's already talk about 2011. Nevada will then be facing an even scarier deficit, and even a few Republicans are hinting about possible major tax reform in the next biennium.

But anyway, back to this budget this year. While Democratic legislators succeeded in trimming the proposed cuts to education and the social safety net, there will still be painful cuts and difficult decisions to be made.

And in addition to the budget, there's still the water issue.

Lawmakers also seemed loath to allow the water rights bill to push them past midnight.

“If we don’t feel those questions are answered and this bill is the right way to proceed, we won’t,” Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said while opening a late-night hearing on the water rights bill. “But seriously, we don’t have much time, and we don’t want to make a mistake.”

That bill, pushed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority, sought to change a recent Nevada Supreme Court decision that has thrown more than 14,000 water rights into limbo.

Yes, SNWA really wants to use this special session to push its Great Basin Water Grab. As if they couldn't think of a more inappropriate time to demand more of someone else's water to fuel more unsustainable suburban/exurban sprawl, legislators are still planning to take a vote this week on reversing the Nevada Supreme Court ruling that halted the water grab.

So obviously, this special session will be remembered for all the tough decisions made on this year's budget... But it may also turn out to be a foreshadow of what's to come on next year's budget, sustainable development, water rights, workers' rights, and much more.

ACTION ALERT: Ask the Legislature to Keep the NV Equal Rights Commission Enforcing Our Laws!

I just got an alert from HRC Las Vegas on this. Please read my letter to our legislators below, followed by HRC's and ACLU Nevada's explanation of why it's important to keep the NERC doing its job.

Hello. My name is Andrew Davey, and I'm a registered voter in Henderson. I'm writing today regarding the budget and the proposal by Governor Gibbons to eliminate the Nevada Equal Rights Commission (NERC).

While eliminating this important commission may be considered "penny wise", it's absolutely "pound foolish". Without it, all of Nevada's anti-discrimination laws will be rendered meaningless. Without it, many thousands of Nevadans will be at risk of all types of wrongful discrimination. And especially since SB 207 (passed last year) stipulates that the NERC handles anti-gay discrimination cases, there will be no enforcement mechanism to protect people being discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.

Another reason why eliminating the NERC will be "pound foolish" is that it won't really save the state money. All this would do is shift the burden of handling these racial and gender discrimination cases to the already overburdened Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and/or the state courts.

The NERC has proven to be a way to resolve employment and public accommodation discrimination cases, and it's very helpful in reducing the load of law suits being filed in state courts. And for LGBTQ Nevadans, this is the only way to resolve anti-gay discrimination in this state. Again, please don't allow Governor Gibbons to abolish the NERC in this special session.

Thank you.

--
Andrew Davey
My Address
Henderson, NV 89074
(702) My Phone

GOVERNOR GIBBONS & NV LEGISLATURE CONSIDERING ELIMINATION OF THE NV EQUAL RIGHTS COMMISSION.    CONTACT YOUR STATE LEGISLATOR TODAY!!    As part of his budget cuts, Governor Gibbons has proposed to eliminate the Nevada Equal Rights Commission (NERC), the state agency responsible for enforcement of Nevada's civil rights and anti-discrimination law.  This proposal is not acceptable.  It would have dire consequences for civil rights across the board, especially for LGBT rights. *           Eliminating NERC would make the passage of SB207, the bill that provided protection against discrimination in places of public accommodation based on sexual orientation, meaningless. Without NERC, there is no enforcement mechanism and no relief for victims of anti-gay discrimination. *           This is not just a severe danger for LGBT rights: NERC extends important resources that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is simply too overburdened to grant to Nevadans who have claims that include sex discrimination in employment, or racial discrimination in places of public accommodation.  The NERC provides a forum for mediation and other less formal methods of resolving employment and public accommodation discrimination claims - frequently without going to state court.  The elimination of NERC would undoubtedly lead to more filings in state court - which of course should be weighed in any serious cost savings analysis. Please join with us in calling on legislators to resist attempts to balance the budget at the expense of our civil rights.  Call or email your legislators now!  The legislature will vote on eliminating the NERC this weekend.  1)    Contact Leadership in the Nevada Legislature: Steven Horsford, Sen Majority Ldr: shorsford@sen.state.nv.us Bill Raggio, Senate Minority Leader: wraggio@sen.state.nv.us Barbara Buckley, Speaker of the Assembly: barbara@barbarabuckley.com John Oceguera, Assembly Majority Floor Ldr: joceguera@asm.state.nv.us Heidi Gansert, Assembly Minority Ldr: hgansert@asm.state.nv.us 2)   Contact your state legislators: Go to this link to identify your state legislators -   Email your State Legislator  Human Rights Campaign Las Vegas Steering Committee

Gibbons vs. Everyone

Apparently, "Luv-Guv" Gibbons is now a party of one.

For all their differences over cuts and fees, Nevada’s Legislature has found an unlikely unifying force: Gov. Jim Gibbons. [...]

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. [...]

“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.”

So even though Gibbons himself amended his proclamation for the special session to include "Race to the Top" eligibility, he will still veto the bill because the Legislature's preferred language isn't exactly his. Klassy.

So what's making all this worse for Gibbons? He's taking on the "Master of the (State) Senate".

Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, lashed out at Gov. Jim Gibbons on Wednesday, widening a political fissure between the Legislature and the administration as lawmakers meet in special session to try to fill a nearly $900 million budget hole.

In a statement read on the Senate floor, the longtime lawmaker accused Gibbons, a Reno Republican, of having "failing memory," being "misinformed," or "intentionally distorting the facts." Raggio was responding to a newspaper article in Wednesday's Reno Gazette-Journal in which Gibbons said Raggio didn't "show up" at most budget meetings held in the weeks leading up to the special session that started Tuesday in Carson City.

Raggio said he attended at least eight meetings, and the governor was present at two.

"I don't know why he wants to pick a fight with me, unless it's for political reasons because I am supporting his primary opponent," Raggio, who's served in the Senate since 1973, said in his statement.

Asked afterward if he respects the governor, Raggio told reporters, "I respect the office, always will."

So Bill Raggio was attacked by Gibbons, and all the legislators (including the Republicans!) have declared open war on him. This really looks to be the next phase of "The Great Nevada GOP Civil War of 2010".

And after all, this special session is turning out to be just as much (if not more) about 2010 electoral politics as it is about balancing the budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal biennium. No really, think about it. Gibbons has used this all along as a "Reelect Gibbons 2010" campaign infomercial aimed directly at the teabaggers he needs to survive the June primary. Brian Sandoval has become involved, even though he's neither a legislator nor in the Gibbons Administration... And it seems the Raggio vs. Gibbons flame war is a proxy for the greater primary challenge.

And of course, there's also politicking on the Democratic side. Some legislators are afraid of the "no new taxes" boogeymen, while others are taking heed of what the progressive base has been trying to tell them all along.

Oh, and did I mention a plan is now emerging from the Nevada Legislature?

Among their goals was to reduce Gibbons’ cuts in K-12 education by half and restore $50 million to health care and social services. Although closed-door negotiations continued late Wednesday, parts of the Democrats’ plan emerged, signaling the Legislature will have to raise millions of dollars more than Gibbons had proposed in fees to close the $887 million deficit.

In a moment of political theater, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, called for members to raise their hands if they wanted to reduce the cut in state funding for K-12 from 10 percent to 5 percent.

“If we’re not reaching an agreement privately, we have no choice but to ask folks where they stand here,” Buckley said. “I don’t mean to put anyone on the spot. But we need to move on. We need to balance the budget.”

All the Democrats voted in favor, and none of the 14 Republicans raised their hands.

The smaller cuts in school budgets will likely force legislators to find $87.5 million in revenue or additional trims. [...]

Democrats have discussed raising $50 million from mining, $64 million from gaming and $8.5 million from higher business license fees. But so far, the cuts they have publicly proposed to undo would outstrip that revenue.

Other parts of the emerging plan include:

• $8.5 million in fee increases for businesses. Secretary of State Ross Miller justified the increase by saying that because of increased responsibilities, layoffs and furloughs, wait times for business licensing spiked from an average of four days a year ago to 37 days. The head of the Nevada Registered Agent Association testified in favor of the bill.

• Scuttle some of the proposed sweeping of various accounts because of constitutional concerns.

• Restore $24.7 million in health and human services cuts.

Gibbons reduced some of the proposed cuts to the agency that drew the loudest protests. He said federal money could cover restoration of $24 million in cuts that included eliminating housing assistance for the mentally ill and mentally disabled, hiring front-line welfare workers and providing dentures for the poor and elderly.

But legislators want to restore money to care for the elderly in their homes; to eliminate a 10 percent proposed cut to Clark County child welfare; and avoid implementing increases in health insurance premiums for children of poor families.

Well, I guess all our agitating from the "wacko Commie-loving extreme left" is working. It finally looks like a comprehensive plan is emerging that won't be completely "balanced" on the backs of the working poor.

OK, so Gibbons will likely veto it? So what! Even the Republican legislators have abandoned him. Let them fight their civil war and destroy each other in the primary.

Democrats in Carson City finally look to be finding their own voices, and this is exactly what they need to do to sideline Gibbons, pass a real budget, and win the fall election.