Tuesday, May 6, 2003 | 8:50 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Lawmakers were given a bit of political cover this morning to do something they want to -- raise their own salaries.
Even the conservative Nevada Taxpayers Association pledged support for Assembly Bill 464 -- which establishes a Commission to Review the Compensation of Legislators.
"It has been so long since you had an increase, anything you do winds up being double-digit, 23, 24 or 25 percent increases, and that doesn't play well in the press," Taxpayers Association President Carole Vilardo said.
But Vilardo said that unless lawmakers seek to amend the state's Constitution to allow for annual pay consideration or pay for all 120 days of legislative service, the commission makes sense.
The bill creates a commission consisting of five members appointed by the governor to review the compensation paid to legislators.
Several people testified Monday during a hearing in the Ways and Means Committee that the bill should include health insurance benefits for lawmakers.
Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, said it costs him $700 a month for health insurance while he is in session.
"If we can't step up and fix this problem once and for all, people won't serve," Hettrick said.
Lawmakers are paid $130 a day for the first 60 days they are in session. They also receive some stipends for mail to constituents and travel.
Danny Thompson, secretary-treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO, said the commission is greatly needed because "what you make now isn't enough to be homeless."
Lucille Lusk of Nevada Concerned Citizens was the opposing lone voice, saying lawmakers should seek the constitutional amendments instead.
She said that since so much time has passed since the last pay raise, and that up to a 28 percent raise would be needed to accommodate inflation alone, the raise would appear unreasonable.
"If action were taken every session ... then the numbers would be reasonable," Lusk said.
Lusk was referring to Assembly Joint Resolution 7, which among other things, seeks a constitutional amendment to require the Legislature to set the salaries for itself and all county officials every session.
AB464 was sent to the Ways and Means Committee because members of the commission are paid a stipend for serving. If the commission recommended any pay raise, a lawmaker would be required to first win re-election before the measure took effect.
The committee took no action on AB464, or on Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins' homeland security bill, Assembly Bill 441, Monday morning.
AB441 creates a commission on homeland security; makes certain documents confidential; increases penalties for having fake identification for purposes other than age; requires utilities to create vulnerability plans and requires contingency plans for state governments. The bill also requires local governments to have automated external defibrillators in place at state buildings and other places where large crowds gather.
Several local officials from Washoe and Douglas counties opposed several sections of the bill because they required all state emergency agencies to be on the same radio frequencies for purposes of interagency communication in times of crisis.
"While interoperability is the goal, we still need to be able to conduct business until we get to that point," said Reno firefighter Marty Sherman, who also chairs a communications task force in Northern Nevada.
AB441 includes a fiscal note of about $230,000, earmarked to establish the homeland security commission and another $185,000 earmarked for the AEDs.
The fiscal note also states local governments' estimates of the impacts as follows: $37,500 per year in Henderson; $500,000 over the course of the next two years in North Las Vegas; $15,000 in Clark County; $60,000 the first year and $2,500 in subsequent years for the Colorado River Commission; and $5,000 a year in Eureka County.
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