Tuesday, June 10, 2003 | 9:19 a.m.
Both houses of the Legislature have passed their tax bills by respectable margins but, hamstrung by a two-thirds majority requirement, they remain at impasse. The regular session ended June 2, yet, as of this morning anyway, legislators continued to lock horns during a special session costing $50,000 a day. The issues are whether to authorize tax increases of about $860 million and the manner in which taxes should be increased for large businesses. Enough Republicans have banded together to block a tax increase of that size and to block a proposed gross receipts tax on the big businesses.
Gov. Kenny Guinn showed mercy Saturday night when he gave the legislators a two-day reprieve from the stalling and negotiations over taxes that have occupied them for the past month. He also set an open-ended deadline for reaching agreement, although he and the legislators know the potential for financial crisis if agreement isn't reached by June 30. That's the end of the fiscal year, the last day of the current spending plan. Without a new one in place by July 1, many state services could begin slowing or halting altogether.
Guinn relented a bit in granting the reprieve and loosening the deadline, measures we understand in light of the long hours so far and the need for time to have any chance of breaking the deadlock. We were pleased, however, to hear the governor state with absolute certainty that he would not relent on the size of the budget. Incredulously, Republicans in the Legislature are talking of taking back the budget and stripping it down so that a tax increase of less than $860 million may be passed. Fortunately, Guinn, even though a Republican himself, is having none of that. He controls the agenda of special sessions and has declared that the $4.95 billion budget approved by both houses in the waning hours of the regular session will stand exactly as he signed it.
Many Republicans are now trying to spin this strong and proper stand by the governor into a scenario saddling him with responsibility if the state must begin shutting down services on July 1. If the state lurches into a fiscal crisis that day, there will be responsible parties, but they will have names like Sen. Ann O'Connell, Sen. Barbara Cegavske, Assemblyman Bob Beers, Assemblyman Lynn Hettrick, and Assemblyman Ron Knecht, who are among the Republicans gumming up the works. The responsibility for passing a workable and badly needed increased spending plan to match the budget falls on the shoulders of legislators, including the minority whose failure to understand Nevada's needs forced this expensive special session in the first place.
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