Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Plan to end on time soured in last hour

CARSON CITY -- For hours on Monday it appeared that just one vote separated lawmakers from passing the state's largest tax increase in history.

But the attempts to get that one last vote fell short, leaving lawmakers preparing for a special session.

Just before 11:30 p.m. Monday, Senate Democrats caucused near an emergency exit off the chambers tallying last-minute support for passage of an $869 million tax plan.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, emerged with a face poker players would love -- sheer disappointment complete with a head shaking no and a walk to Majority Leader Bill Raggio's desk to report the news.

Titus had lost Bernice Mathews, D-Sparks, an ardent opponent of the gross receipts tax on businesses -- and with that vote gone -- legislative leaders knew their best-laid plans for closure of the 120-day session were gone.

The plan was to have the Republican-led Senate vote first on the tax plan and show all the freshman Republican Assemblymen that their political futures were not hanging in the balance.

By 8 a.m. on Monday, word had spread that one of the five needed Republican votes for passage of any tax plan in the Assembly, had changed his mind.

In the Assembly, Democrats hold a 23-19 edge and 28 votes are required for passage of any tax.

Assemblyman Rod Sherer, R-Pahrump, who had previously pledged support for both the budget number and the means to fund it, had nothing but sour words Sunday night after legislative leaders signed off on a tax deal.

"He's the thumb," Assemblyman Josh Griffin, R-Henderson, said of Sherer.

The rest of the day was filled with arm-twisting and cajoling on both sides of the aisle.

Just before noon, an Assembly vote on the authorization bill -- an act that allows state agencies to spend federal and grant money -- showed how the once-perceived support from five Republicans had eroded.

The bill passed 27-15, but with only four Republicans joining the 23 Democrats in support. Assemblymembers Jason Geddes and Dawn Gibbons, both of Reno, Josh Griffin of Henderson and Joe Hardy of Boulder City were the lone Republicans to support the bill.

In the Senate, although there was no vote taken to show the break-down, three Democrats had clearly stated they would not vote in support of a Unified Business Tax.

Without a unified Senate Democratic caucus, Republicans in the Senate realized they needed to pick up yet another vote by leaning on one more of their own and by Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, lobbying to bring Mathews into the yes column.

In the other house, an all out lobbying effort was focused on several moderate Assembly Republican freshmen -- Chad Christensen of Las Vegas, Tom Grady of Yerington and Pete Goicoechea of Eureka.

During a recess in a late-morning Assembly floor session, Gov. Kenny Guinn's Chief of Staff Marybel Batjer was lobbying Goicoechea directly at his desk, her arms waving and emphatically stressing the budget number settled on by the two houses was a good one for him to support.

The Nevada Resort Association, which has been lobbying heavily for passage of the business tax, sent Chairman Lorenza Fertitta -- the president of Station Casinos -- to meet with Christensen.

Both parties in both houses caucused after their respective floor sessions. Guinn met with Goicoechea, Grady and Christensen just before 3 p.m. in his Capitol office. The governor said the message was: "To lay out the situation and the consequences."

"I don't ask anybody for a vote," Guinn said. Republicans in the Assembly were still struggling with the size of the budget on Monday, with many saying they could support taxes if the amount in new revenue required would dip under $800 million.

In the Senate, the concern was not about the number, but about how the budget would be funded.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, said he could not support the Unified Business Tax, and suggested he would support a payroll tax or an increase in the existing sales tax to fund the required $861 million in new revenue.

Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, said that when the gross receipts tax was put on the table last November by the Task Force on Tax Policy, those who were opposed to it were asked to make alternative recommendations.

While Amodei joined with Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, in doing just that, lawmakers did not process their tax bill or borrow much from the plan.

"Today we're not talking about a payroll tax," Amodei said Monday. "Today, we're not talking about a sales tax on services. The gaming industry is pushing us in one direction. "They're holding heads to the trough and saying you must drink from this."

The lobbying for the last Assembly vote got so ridiculous late in the afternoon that Sherer was reportedly offered a pork project in his district, which he rejected as "a bribe."

The heat was turned up so much that at one point Perkins had to apologize to Sherer for some of the comments one of his caucus members had made. At the start of the session, a vocal conservative minority understood that in the Senate, with a Republican 13-8 advantage, it only takes nine votes to prevent a two-thirds majority for the passage of a tax plan.

Unlike in the Assembly where 23 Democrats stood poised to approve taxes, Titus' caucus was able to bring only five or six votes. Raggio has faced opposition within his caucus from Sens. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas; Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, and Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson.

After Titus grimly reported her lack of progress moving Democrats into the aye column, Raggio stood and declared his house would not be voting on taxes until a special session.

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