Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Titus accuses two legislators of sneaking local projects into bill

CARSON CITY -- Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, is accusing two legislators of quietly sneaking two local projects into a bill in the closing hours of the 2003 regular session of the Legislature that should not have been approved.

Titus says Sen. Mark Amodei R-Carson City, and Assemblyman Tom Collins, D-Las Vegas, got $150,000 for cemetery improvements in Virginia City and $136,000 for restoration of fairgrounds in Panaca.

She complained Sunday that the money will come from the $200 million parks, recreation and open spaces bond issue approved by voters last November. She is asking for a legal opinion whether the money can be used for these two projects, she said.

But Amodei and Collins said using this money for the two projects was approved by the legislative legal counsel. Amodei said putting the money into the bill on the final day "wasn't a secret to anybody who was paying attention." He said it was explained publicly on the floor of the Senate and had previously been sanctioned by legislative leaders.

Titus said she was not questioning the value of the projects, but she didn't think they should be financed by the parks-open spaces bond money.

"I don't think the taxpayers of Clark County voted for a fairgrounds in Panaca and a cemetery in Virginia City," she said.

The Nature Conservancy may file suit to challenge the award of money for these two projects, Titus said, and she may try to amend any tax bill to exclude these two projects from using the recreation-open spaces bond money.

Both Amodei and Collins said both the cemetery and the fairgrounds bill had been approved by the 2001 Legislature but the projects got lost in the closing hours. Collins introduced a bill this session to get the money but it never got out of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

Amodei did not draft any legislation for the cemetery money because he was told "the budget was in bad shape.

Amodei said he asked the state Parks Division about using the recreation-open spaces bond money and was told it was not proper. But then he said he sought the legal advice of Legislative Counsel Brenda Erdoes and informed Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, and Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, chairwoman of the Government Affairs Committee, of what he was going to do.

The $150,000 for the cemetery will be used to match an $800,000 grant from the federal Bureau of Land Management for a place that is on the national register of historic places, Amodei said.

Collins said everything is legal and "Dina is crying over spilt milk." He said he discussed it with the Assembly leadership in advance and got their approval.

Amodei was criticized during the regular session for putting a section in a tax bill that would have allowed some time-share casinos in Las Vegas to move into neighborhood areas, which are considered more prosperous locations.

When that provision was discovered, Titus and Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, changed their vote on the tax bill and said they were afraid there were other things that were hidden in the legislation.

Titus said Sunday Amodei's move "is another example of trying to sneak things in, and this is not good policy."

The bill that allowed the cemetery and fairgrounds money was Senate Bill 144, first introduced to allow the state Parks Division to retain a fee for administering federal funds and to permit the state to enter into cooperate agreements with local governments to manage parks.

There was disagreement on the bill between the Senate and Assembly and a conference committee was appointed May 30. On the final day of the regular session, the conference committee, which included Collins, reported its agreement that included a new provision at the end of the bill for the money for the two projects.

Amodei was not on the conference committee but Collins said Amodei wanted the cemetery project included.

"Legislative Counsel Bureau has said this is very legal, and I'm sorry she's (Titus) upset about this," Collins said.

Collins said Titus told him that it was not fair that they could get something and she could not get something she wanted. "I'm sorry. The deal is done. The governor signed," he said.

It was proper to use the money for the Panaca fairgrounds, Collins said, and compared it to the $10 million in the bond issue "for cleaning up a swamp because we didn't get private industry in Las Vegas to do it," referring to the Las Vegas Wash.

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