Legislature should meet more often, survey of Nevadans says

While 70 percent of the voters who went to the polls in November wanted the state Legislature to limit its session to 120 days every two years, a poll released Tuesday says that more than 50 percent of those eligible to vote in Nevada want legislators to meet twice as often.

The Nevada Poll, a survey released every other year prior to the start of the legislative session, also shows an increase in the number of people who refuse to be identified with any political party.

The poll is conducted by UNLV's Cannon Center for Survey Research and the Alan Bible Center for Applied Research at the University of Nevada, Reno. For the survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent statewide and 5 percent regionally, 1,200 people were interviewed.

Judy Calder, director of Reno's Center for Applied Research as well as director of the poll, said the apparent contradiction in preferences in how long the Legislature should meet is not unusual.

"This is a random digit dialing poll," she said. "It does not just include voters."

The discrepancy reflects the tendency for low voter turnout in Nevada.

"There is a low percentage of people who register and who turn out to vote," Calder said. "Frequently, we see a difference between a true random selection (and preferences of those who vote)."

In the latest Nevada Poll, 1,200 people age 18 and older were randomly selected in the southern, northern, urban and rural regions of the state. They were asked 51 questions about selected legislative issues, such as taxes and governmental spending on education, crime and welfare.

"Despite the diversity and geographical distribution of residents in Nevada, the opinions of residents in northern, southern and rural counties are quite consistent on a variety of issues, such as spending for various programs and sources of tax revenues," Grace Woo, director of the Cannon Center at UNLV, said.

There were several exceptions, most of them relating to growth issues, Woo and Calder said.

A higher percentage of Clark County residents wanted more funding for environmental programs, construction of new highways, roads and freeways and construction of sewer systems. And they were more in favor of transporting water from rural to urban areas.

Also, there was more support in Clark County than the rest of the state for the introduction of a state tax on corporate profits and an increase in taxes on gaming.

Calder said she was surprised by the poll's revelation that 17 percent of the people don't identify with any political party, up from 9 percent two years ago.

While the Democrats held on to those who identify with them, about 38 percent statewide, the Republicans lost about 5 percent, dropping from 35 percent statewide to 30 percent.

Calder stressed that the percentages had nothing to do with registration, only with those who consider themselves as having the same philosophy as a particular party.

She called the almost doubling of those who won't claim any political party as "shocking."

"One explanation might be dissatisfaction with what is going on politically on the national level," Calder said.

She also was interested in the response of those who identified themselves on economic and social issues as somewhere between liberal and conservative.

"These figures have been quite stable in the past," Calder said. "About 38 (percent) or 39 percent say that on economic issues they are moderate, 35 (percent) to 36 percent said conservative, 20 (percent) to 21 percent say liberal.

"There's not a lot of difference between economic and social categories."

Yet, she said, while more than 70 percent identified themselves as fiscally conservative or moderate, more than 50 percent indicated a willingness to spend more on some state-funded programs, a decidedly liberal attitude.

Those who were polled were a little less charitable in areas Calder found surprising.

There was a 5 percent decline in support of law enforcement and a 15 percent decline in support of mental health programs.

However, she emphasized, the decrease merely points to the degree of willingness to support the programs.

"About 54 percent of those polled are still willing to spend more on mental health," she said.

Calder said the poll shows a fiscally conservative trend in the state, which could be the result of people concerned about their increasing tax burden and also people aware that the state is going through some financial shortfalls.

Those polled indicated they wanted to pay for programs using money "far from their pocketbooks," said Calder, such as gaming taxes and other taxes on tourists. They opposed increasing taxes on gasoline, property and groceries.

Woo said there has been an upward trend in the statewide opposition to the plan to store high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Over the last four surveys, the percentages of those opposed were:

-- 1992: 59 percent. -- 1994: 64 percent. -- 1996: 73 percent. -- 1998: 75 percent.

Calder was surprised at the growing opposition to the Yucca Mountain project.

"I thought the '96 poll had reached a peak of opposition," she said, noting that in Clark County 77 percent of those polled were against it. "People who thought Nevadans would soften up and the opposition would fade are dead wrong. Nevadans are saying to the feds, get out. We don't want Yucca Mountain."

Those who were polled said not only should Legislature meet annually, 87 percent said a limit should be placed on the amount of money politicians should be allowed to spend on their races.

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