Cherry blossoms, budget battles, both set to bloom

By Lisa Mascaro

Monday, March 30, 2009 | 10:31 a.m.

WASHINGTON — Greetings, Early Liners, from the nation’s capital where the cherry blossoms are allegedly beginning to bloom, a little late this year, but perhaps in time for the annual budget fight in Congress.

Congress will be pressing to finish up the bulk of its budget exercise before lawmakers depart Friday for the two-week spring recess — er, district work period.

However, before the debate gets fully underway, President Barack Obama plans to return to the Hill today to press his case before House Democrats.

Some of Nevada’s lawmakers will be seeing even more of the president today.

Democratic Rep. Dina Titus and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are among those headed to the White House this afternoon as Obama signs a massive lands bill into law.

The popular bill includes several goodies for Nevada, including land transfers for the Nevada Cancer Institute and the Henderson airport.

In Carson City, legislators turn their attention to renewable energy and charter schools. It’s week nine of the session, if you’re counting.

Many good stories in the weekend papers, as always.

Be sure to catch my Sun colleague J. Patrick Coolican’s piece on the regressive nature of the state’s tax system. If you read no more, just scan the lead:

“A family of three making $25,000 a year in Las Vegas pays about 10 percent of its income in state and local taxes.

A family of three making $150,000 a year in Las Vegas pays about 4 percent of its income in taxes.

The disparity exists because Nevada has one of the most regressive tax systems in America, according to census data and independent studies. The less Nevadans make, the more they pay as a percentage of their income.”

It's an issue that's sure to come to the fore as Carson continues to consider that gaping budget hole.

That’s it for now. Check back later for updates on all the political news this week from Nevada.