Tuesday, March 25, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, renewing her efforts to eliminate Nevada's lobbying office in Washington, D.C., is running into stiff resistance.
Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, who said she has never "been able to get a handle" on what the office does, on Monday asked its director, Leo Penne, if he is just a "greeter" who welcomes Nevada officials to the nation's capital.
But Penne is supported by other lawmakers.
"I appreciate the Washington office," said Assemblyman Bob Price, D-North Las Vegas. "I do not go to Washington without calling on it to check what his happening."
Sen. Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Minden, said, "You will never know how valuable it is until you use it."
Price and Jacobsen are two of the most frequent travelers in the Nevada Legislature.
Penne appeared before the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee to talk about his proposed $239,000 budget for next fiscal year and $246,000 for the following year. He has a staff of one full-time and one part-time employee.
Penne breezed through the hearing in the Senate but ran into the pointed questioning in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. Assemblyman David Goldwater said Nevada has the congressional offices and their staffs, lobbyists hired by local interest groups from Las Vegas and Reno and pays dues to national organizations of state legislators and governors.
Goldwater called it a possible duplication of effort, and he wants to see a list of those people who come to Washington and visit the office. Giunchigliani wanted to know whether Penne hosts the visitors with meals and whether he chauffeurs them around.
But Penne said he acts as a facilitator, arranging meetings and coordinating Nevada's effort to get federal funds or to head off a program that might hurt the state. He cited the work in helping raise the state's share of federal highway construction funds from $84 million in 1990 to about $130 million a year now.
He was praised by state Transportation Director Tom Stephens, who said Penne's nonpartisan office is able to get Republican and Democratic officials together to forge a common approach.
Stephens said past efforts by some local governments, which have gone to Washington on their own to get highway construction money, have failed. Stephens said a unified approach is working.
Stephens' agency pays $89,000 a year to support the Washington office and $160,000 to John Hassell, a former federal highway administrator, for his "technical expertise" in finding what funds are available for certain projects and in preparing the applications.
The state Economic Development Commission chips in $99,900 and the state Tourism Commission gives $49,950 to the Washington office.
Penne said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., told his office several years ago that unless there is a consensus in Nevada, he "will not be able to produce" more highway construction money.
Neither committee took a vote on Penne's budget.
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