Some grumble as legislators start budget work

But members of legislative money committees already are hard at work, conducting daily reviews of Gov. Kenny Guinn's proposed budget.

The lawmakers aren't working for free. Each can collect a $130 daily salary and a daily living allowance of $68. Their secretaries have been hired and are busy working in upper floor offices.

Someone walking into the Legislative Building might assume the Legislature is in session. But until Feb. 1, the legislators are calling themselves members of a special budget subcommittee of the Legislative Commission.

"I don't like it," says Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry, D-North Las Vegas. "We shouldn't be here. I would like us to start on Feb. 1, as the people voted on."

Question 5 made no mention of Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio's intention to have the Legislature's two budget committees begin meeting two weeks before the convening of the Legislature.

Raggio, R-Reno, was the primary author of the proposal to limit legislative sessions to 120 days. The proposal was touted as a way to save taxpayers money. Recent legislative sessions have run longer than 165 days at a cost of about $55,000 per day.

"We didn't need to mention it," Raggio says. "Do you think they (voters) object to the fact we are spending some extra time here? Why would they object?"

He said he announced from the beginning of his drive to place the 120-day session proposal before voters that the two budget review committees would convene early.

But Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, doesn't recall any Raggio pronouncements about the early meetings.

"None of us knew about it," she said. "It wasn't communicated at any hearing. If we are going to have 120-day sessions, then we should meet for 120 days."

Giunchigliani said that as a schoolteacher in Clark County, she could attend only three days of the two weeks of early hearings because her classes were at the end of the semester.

Arberry and Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, also don't like the idea of allowing the two committees to jump-start the beginning of the session.

"We should start the same time as everybody else," Arberry said. "If that means we have to work longer hours and meet in the evening, well so be it."

"The whole thing is a sham," Titus added. "Raggio told people they could do it in 120 days, and now they aren't doing it in 120 days."

Raggio's plan has its supporters.

"We have to do it," said Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas. "There is no way on God's green Earth that we could go through the budgets of all state agencies under the present system and finish in 120 days."

Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, noted that the committees weren't passing any bills but only reviewing budget requests.

Without the early meetings, Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, doubts the Legislature could adjourn by May 31 as required by law.

"I think what we are doing is important," he said. "It gives us a running start."

Raggio also said he would keep his commitment to Assemblyman Bob Price, D-North Las Vegas, and support a plan to place before voters in November 2000 a new ballot question.

Price wants voters to approve annual sessions of the state Legislature. Nevada is one of seven states where legislatures meet every other year.

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