Monday, June 30, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Legislative gridlock has precedent

1867 Legislature needed divisive special session to solve tax-and-budget impasse

State Archivist Guy Rocha, who unearthed information regarding the antics of the 1867 Legislature, works in his office Thursday. Photo by K.M. Cannon. The portrait of Gov. Henry G. Blasdel, who called the 1867 Legislature into special session, is shown in the state Capitol. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

CARSON CITY -- Even the old-timers never had seen anything like it before.

Legislators convened here last week for a second special session on taxes and school spending, and the vitriol flowed from the start.

It might have seemed unprecedented, but as the good book says, "There is nothing new under the sun."

State Archivist Guy Rocha said the Legislature in 1867 behaved exactly like the current body.

"In looking for a hook, people want to say this is the first time something happened, but it is not," Rocha said. "What we are seeing in the Legislature is not unique. It started with the beginning of the state."

In 1867, legislators adjourned their regular 60-day session without providing the tax revenue to cover costs of government or pay the 15 percent interest on a $500,000 state debt.

Gov. Henry G. Blasdel was not pleased. In a flowery proclamation ordering legislators back to Carson City, the governor said the state would be "broken, its honor and credit destroyed" and "government seriously embarrassed" if they did not plug the hole in taxes.

Legislators eventually did pass the necessary taxes, but it took them 20 days, which was the legal maximum. They picked up their $8 daily wages lollygagging around Carson City, rather than heading home to their farms and mines. The daily journals show that some days they worked 20 minutes.

That special session cost taxpayers $1,000 a day, compared with the $50,000 daily cost of the two special sessions of 2003.

"Like today, the people then complained about how much it cost every day," Rocha said. "They said, `Why wasn't it done in the regular session?' Some argued legislators met in special session for 20 days because they got paid for it."

The legislators' treatment of each other was just as nasty as today. The Assembly quickly removed Assemblyman A.H. Lissak of Virginia City. He had the audacity to write a letter to his hometown Territorial Enterprise that criticized fellow legislators for failing to pass the necessary taxes.

In removing him, fellow Assembly members accused Lissak of "injuring and insulting" them. Several days later, Lissak retracted his letter, received a stiff reprimand and was permitted to rejoin the Assembly.

To retaliate against the Territorial Enterprise, where Samuel Clemens first began writing as Mark Twain, the Legislature banned the newspaper from its building.

But the Territorial Enterprise was not the only newspaper critical of the Legislature.

Editor Henry G. Mighels of the Daily Appeal in Carson City blamed the special session on the mining magnates and their lackeys, whom he referred to as "certain evil designing men."

Mighels declared too many legislators believed that mining had made Nevada and taxing the state's predominant industry would "kill the goose that lays the golden egg."

That sentiment still is heard today in legislative corridors, but now in reference to the gaming industry.

At the time, state government was funded by property taxes on farms, industry and mining.

Blasdel noted the state constitution required "uniformity and equality of assessment and taxation." But he said mining avoided paying its fair share.

Legislators reluctantly agreed on a tax bill, one that Assembly leaders contended still taxed mining at one-sixth of the rate of other people and businesses.

They declared the tax was unfair, but they had no choice but to approve it out of "sheer necessity." The Senate would not budge from its pro-mining position.

"The tradition of special interests not paying their fair share goes back to then," Rocha said. "Mining had its way with the Legislature into the early 20th century."

Today's legislators could learn the harsh lesson experienced by their predecessors in the 1867 Legislature.

Just five of the 38 Assembly members returned to serve in the Legislature in 1869. Ten of the 20 senators returned to office, but Rocha found most of them were serving four-year terms that did not expire until after the 1869 session.

Many Assembly members decided not to run again after the contentious special session. Rocha is not sure why they left politics. People moved a lot in 19th century Nevada.

But he speculates they knew voters were not happy.

"Voters were outraged," Rocha said. "When the public perceives that business could have been done and should have been finished during the regular session, they act against legislators. They felt legislators were milking the maximum amount of time and money they could."

Rocha perceives a similarly angry citizenry today.

"Whether they support no taxes or more taxes, the public is upset the Legislature still is going on," he said.