Monday, December 16, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

License plate change cited as example of wasteful spending

Legislators urged to limit bill introductions in upcoming session

Put Gov. Kenny Guinn on the list of those who think the state wasted $6 million when it changed license plates this year.

The Republican governor sees those new plates as a symbol of too many laws.

His advice to lawmakers heading into the 2003 session: "We have too many bills that are introduced that shouldn't be, like changing license plates. We have too many priorities to put $6 million into, rather than changing the color of your license plates."

Oops. That's already done. Legislators did that two sessions ago. But his point to lawmakers is that less is more when it comes to introducing bills.

And, as of now, there are 835 bill drafts being written for the session that begins Feb. 3.

The Republican governor also made it clear that the tax plan he'll offer to raise more money from the state isn't set in stone.

Typically, Nevada's governor sends his budget to the Legislature, it's tweaked here and there and it wins approval with minor changes.

But when Guinn releases his proposed budget Jan. 20, he said he'll be open to suggestions, at least on how to raise the at least $800 million more he wants just to keep services at current levels.

"I'm going to make some good recommendations, lay out a number of plans for revenue," he said recently. "But that doesn't mean that the revenue has to come from every one of those sources."

Fuss-free process

Sometimes news is what doesn't happen.

There was no fussing and feuding, as there's been in years past, over who will be called "chair" of the Clark County Commission as of Jan. 6.

Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey said she has the support of the board to give her the job. "I'm not sure who else wanted it," she said Friday.

Kincaid-Chauncey said she would have deferred to Myrna Williams, but Williams instead deferred to Kincaid-Chauncey.

Yvonne Atkinson Gates had held the job before, so had Bruce Woodbury.

Vice chair honors will go to Chip Maxfield.

Kenny and current Chairman Dario Herrera are both leaving the commission after running unsuccessfully for higher office.

"I don't expect this board to be real contentious," Kincaid-Chauncey said. "Not that we'll all agree on everything."

County Manager Thom Reilly asked the seven commissioners what they wanted and it pretty much fell into place, Kincaid-Chauncey said.

She will give up serving on the Southern Nevada Water Authority to make room for the two newest commission members, Rory Reid and Mark James, who will join Williams on that high-profile board. The two newbies also will serve on the Metropolitan Police Committee on Fiscal Affairs.

Atkinson Gates and Kincaid-Chauncey have two more years left on the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board.

Woodbury and Maxfield will remain on the Regional Transportation Commission board.

Williams and James will serve on the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition.

More Lott fallout

Senate Majority Leader-elect Trent Lott's recent comments at outgoing Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party didn't sit well with Las Vegas Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald.

"It is totally unacceptable and totally out of line," said Boggs McDonald, who would have become the first black Republican woman in Congress had she won her 1st District race against Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., in November.

"There's no one who could ever make the case that our country would've been better off with segregation."

Boggs McDonald said Lott, who has apologized repeatedly since suggesting that America would have been better off if segregationist candidate Thurmond had won the 1948 presidential election, should surrender his leadership post.

"I think so, because ... when you are in a position of that kind, not only are you the leader of the Senate but you're seen as a leader of the party," said Boggs McDonald, a Republican National Committee member.

"The party is making an aggressive and sincere effort to attract women and minorities to the party, and we can't have leaders of the party that aren't on the same page as the direction of the party."

Review-Journal staff writer Jan Moller contributed to this report.