Looking back: Horsford earns praise for performance

By J. Patrick Coolican

Saturday, June 6, 2009 | 2 a.m.

A bit more than a year ago, state Sen. Steven Horsford was just another first-term senator. A rising star, to be sure, but one whose promise was considered some years away.

Since then, he has risen to majority leader and led his caucus through the crucible of the worst fiscal crisis in state history.

It was not an ideal session to be a new majority leader: Facing a $2.3 billion budget hole that only grew as the session slogged on, Horsford had no choice but to raise taxes on his friends in the business community while cutting pay and benefits for public employees — some of the very people who helped deliver the majority to him.

And, he had to contend with the old lion, state Sen. Bill Raggio, the longtime Republican leader who is known as one of the toughest legislative players in Nevada history.

In the end, Horsford, who needed two Republican votes to get the budget and tax package through, came out alive and won praise from friends and adversaries alike.

“I think he did a good job. It was a tough session,” state Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, said. “Bill Raggio said if you’re not gonna be in charge, this is a good one not to be in charge. He put the needs of the state ahead of politics, and I would give him high marks.”

In Horsford’s own view, the 2009 Nevada Legislature didn’t make much progress in the session that ended last week. But he said he does think lawmakers have reason for optimism.

The Las Vegas Democrat, the youngest and first black majority leader in Nevada history, vowed in a meeting with the Las Vegas Sun editorial board to return in 2011 ready to fix the state’s tax structure and reform education, two areas where the Legislature, which meets every other year for 120 days, failed to act decisively in the session that ended Monday.

The Legislature enacted a tax hike of about $1 billion in the form of voter-approved higher hotel room taxes, as well as increases in payroll and sales taxes.

But legislators also made significant cuts, especially in education. Per-pupil spending in Clark County, for instance, will actually go down next year in a state that lags well behind the national average. Higher education will face a 12.5 percent reduction. State employee pay was reduced 4.6 percent through furloughs.

“All in all, it’s not enough,” Horsford said of the effort to raise revenue to avoid cuts to Nevada’s education and health care infrastructure, which suffer some of the worst ratings in the country on key performance measures.

Horsford’s unmet goal this session was to broaden the revenue base with a corporate income tax, which would have hit out-of-state companies that currently contribute little to the state’s revenue pool.

Nevada is one of a few states without a personal or corporate income tax, which conservatives say is an excellent draw for businesses and people. Horsford counters that it leaves the state too reliant on sales and gaming taxes, and, thus, the tourism industry.

“Our revenue structure does not work for Nevada,” said Horsford, who is also CEO of the Culinary Training Academy, which is backed by the tourism industry and unions.

“I was met with resistance, chiefly from the private sector and particularly the (Las Vegas) Chamber of Commerce,” he said.

In a compromise with Raggio, Horsford passed a bill to study the state’s tax system and the mechanics required for overhauling it in hope of tax reform in 2011.

But not this time.

Senate Republicans had significant political leverage over Horsford because he needed the constitutionally mandated two-thirds vote to enact any tax increase.They forced him to sunset the tax increases and came away with a long-standing wish list of changes to public employee pay and benefits that will reduce long-term liabilities.

“It’s the political will issue that we’re dealing with,” he said of more fundamental reforms.

What does that mean?

Candidate recruitment, fundraising and a tough 2010 election, during which seven of 21 Senate seats will be open because of term limits.

Last year, Horsford was an early backer of President Obama and then helped Democrats pick up two seats in the state Senate to take the majority. His method: Keep your candidates away from the press, and barrage the opposition with some of the nastiest mail in memory.

“Would it help to have more members who share my vision? Yes,” he said, but he added that they need not be Democrats.

Horsford said he was happy to have passed significant legislation on energy and the creation of green jobs, which he said will place Nevada in the mix as a renewable energy leader. “This is our new economy ... It’s on the verge of breaking out in a big way.”

And he cited the bill to create domestic partnerships — marital-like rights for straight and gay couples — as historic civil rights legislation. But Horsford said the Legislature failed his expectations, especially in the decision to sunset new taxes, which, he said, would put the state right where it was a few months ago, facing unfunded programs and fiscal crisis.

He also lamented the failure to pass his education reform bill, which would have brought sweeping change to the education bureaucracy while introducing merit pay and other reforms.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously but then stalled because of “resistance to change,” he said.

“Nobody is willing to jump off the cliff,” he quipped in frustration. “Let’s jump off the cliff together.”

He said the state’s flagging education system is evidence enough that fundamental reform is necessary.

The grass-roots energy of the Obama campaign showed itself on a few isolated issues during the session, including the domestic partners bill and protests of the cuts to higher education.

Still, he said, hopes for a real progressive agenda were crushed by the recession.