CARSON CITY -- Gaming industry and gasoline company lobbyists complained Monday that a bill to prevent price gouging is so poorly written that it would have prevented Las Vegas hotels from jacking up their room rates for the National Basketball Association All-Star Weekend.
"Our industry has serious reservations," said Nevada Resort Association lobbyist Greg Ferraro. "It would prevent a hotel operating in Elko from charging what the market will bear during Cowboy Poetry and in Las Vegas prevent adjusting rates for the NBA All-Star Game."
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"It is totally unworkable," petroleum industry lobbyist John Sande added during a hearing before a Senate Commerce and Labor subcommittee.
Sande said hotels that increased their room rates more than 25 percent over the weekend could have faced criminal sanctions if Senate Bill 82 were law.
But Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, objected to their characterizations of her bill. She maintained the restriction banning businesses from increasing their prices more than 25 percent would only occur if a declaration of an emergency has been declared by the president, governor or local government organization.
Titus said the bill was modeled after price-gouging laws in 30 other states.
"When you have a bill like this, you get a room full of suits," said Titus, pointing to the crowd of lobbyists. "Just look. If it needs tinkering and tightening up, we can do that."
Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, defended the bill, saying he knows hotels double and triple their room rates for special events and the bill could be written to answer their concerns.
"I am not worried about hotel rooms," Schneider added. "That is based on market demand."
But Ferraro responded, "I can only support what I can see."
Subcommittee Chairman Joe Heck, R-Henderson, asked Titus to work with the lobbyists and Deputy Attorney General Kathleen Delaney to come up with amendments that would win the bill broad support.
"Isn't it possible to come up with something workable?" Heck asked.
He noted that the declaration of an emergency that President Bush declared on Sept. 13, 2001, after the terrorist attacks remains in effect.
"That is what concerns me," Heck said. "When does the emergency begin and when does it end?"
Delaney said most of their concerns could be alleviated.
She said many people are under the mistaken impression that Nevada law already protects them from price gouging.
