Lawmakers sporting new laptops this session

By Anjeanette Damon

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011 | 10 a.m.

In addition to shiny new exercise equipment, state lawmakers arrived at the Nevada Legislature to brand new laptop computers this session.

But the new machines, which cost about $105,000 in total, seem to be prompting more angst than applause.

Those who sit on the money committees got 17-inch screens. The bulky computers have brought complaints from some lawmakers who are constantly running between committee rooms lugging the heavy machines.

Assembly Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, is constantly cursing his.

“Hang on,” he recently told a colleague waiting for him to come to a meeting. “I can’t figure out how to turn this damn thing off.”

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, doesn’t seem to rely on his at all, instead porting around an iPad.

The laptops were needed to replace the six-year-old computers lawmakers had been using.

Legislative Counsel Bureau director Lorne Malkiewich said they typically replace the laptops every four years. To make the old ones stretch, they upgraded the memory last session.