Schneider, Shaffer, Dini at top of lobbyist spending list

CARSON CITY -- Sens. Ray Shaffer and Mike Schneider and Assembly Speaker Joe Dini top the list of lawmakers wined and dined by lobbyists, who reported spending $13,208 during the first two months of Nevada's 1999 legislative session.

The three lawmakers were at the head of the line when reports for February were filed last month, and remained there when March expenditures by lobbyists were included. The February total was $8,332 and the March total was $4,876.

An analysis by The Associated Press shows that lobbyists for mines, taxpayer and business associations and Nevada's two state universities in Reno and Las Vegas are the big spenders among the nearly 700 advocates registered for the session.

Shaffer, D-North Las Vegas, is No. 1 among lawmakers, taking $680 in food and drink from lobbyists.

Schneider, D-Las Vegas, is second at $678, and Dini, D-Yerington, is third at $577.

Schneider - at or near the top in past sessions - says attending receptions hosted by lobbyists is part of his job. He also says that at the end of the session he'll write a check for whatever his total is and give it to a program for the mentally retarded in Las Vegas. He's done the same in past years.

Five lawmakers have zeros after their names: Sens. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, and Randolph Townsend, R-Reno; and Assembly members Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, Dawn Gibbons, R-Reno, and John Lee, D-Las Vegas.

Porter says he takes nothing because of what he terms a "perception problem." He even printed cards stating he won't take any food or drinks from lobbyists.

The top-spending lobbyist for February and March was Rick Bennett of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, at $833. UNLV is trying to win a funding battle with the University of Nevada, Reno.

Bennett has said most of the UNLV spending was for tickets to a basketball game in Las Vegas.

Not surprising, Bob Dickens of the University of Nevada, Reno, ranked second in lobbyist spending at $814. That's mostly for a UNR "blue and silver" reception at the start of the session.

Dickens has said legislators were only a small part of a crowd of about 365 people at the event, which cost more than $10,000 and was funded by numerous corporate hosts representing interests ranging from banking to casinos.

Russ Fields of the Nevada Mining Association was third, spending $724 on lawmakers. Carole Vilardo of the Nevada Taxpayers Association was fourth at $689.

Casino interests are lower down on the list when considered individually. However, when Nevada Resort Association advocate Harvey Whittemore's $211 is combined with slot industry lobbyist Jim Avance's $324, they fall into fifth place.

archive