Overhaul proposed

Whether it's a rich vein of ore or a bad run of cards, Nevada was built on booms and busts.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley wants to break that cycle, at least when it comes to the state's finances.

Building on a pledge she made at the end of June's special legislative session, Buckley on Monday unveiled plans to overhaul the state's financial structure and bring stability to the budget process.

The goal is to avoid a repeat of the $1.2 billion in cuts that were needed to balance the current budget and the $1 billion in additional cuts that loom over next year's legislative session.

Building services during a boom only to tear them down during a bust is a waste of money, Buckley said, and it cripples Nevada's ability to climb up from the bottom of state rankings in areas such as education and health care.

"We end up destroying what we just spent years building. It makes no sense," Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said. "So what are we going to look at? Pretty much everything."

The effort will begin with public input, which she hopes to gather with a series of town hall meeting and smaller gatherings throughout the state.

The first town hall meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Monday in Las Vegas at Spring Valley High School, 3750 S. Buffalo Drive. The next will be at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 6 at the University of Nevada, Reno's Joe Crowley Student Union.

Overall, Buckley said, the state must do a better job of setting priorities and bring an end to the days in which "we give a little bit of money to everything and get good at nothing." There also needs to be greater accountability so taxpayers know their money is being used effectively, she said.

The specifics of Buckley's proposal are still being finalized, but the ideas she suggested on Monday include:

• Establishing a Revenue Stabilization Fund, essentially a rainy day account to help essential state programs such as education, public safety and health and human services ride out a financial downturn.

• Revisiting what she called "several hundred million dollars" in tax exemptions and abatements the state has granted to various enterprises.

• Getting federal land in Nevada deeded to the state so it can be leased to the private sector for renewable energy research and production.

One thing Buckley is not after as part of the financial overhaul: "I am not proposing new taxes through this process," she said.

Buckley is calling the effort "Nevada 2020" and hopes it will lead to some goals for the state in the next decade. "If we don't plan for the future, we shouldn't be surprised when we don't get where we want to be," she said.

Buckley is widely considered as a possible candidate for governor in 2010, but she said her push for a financial overhaul has nothing to do with any aspirations for higher office she might have.

She is doing this, she said, because she is speaker of the Assembly and "the state is facing a crisis."

Buckley said she has not invited Gov. Jim Gibbons to participate in the process.

"I'd say we haven't seen a lot of leadership coming from the governor's office, and I don't think we've seen a lot of solutions coming from the governor's office," she said.

That drew a sharp response from Ben Kieckhefer, spokesman for Gibbons, who questioned Buckley's memory of the recent budget stand-off and the run-up to the special session in late June.

"If she's talking about a lack of leadership, she hasn't offered anything different, and the governor gave her every opportunity to do that," Kieckhefer said.

He added that the last time there was talk of overhauling the state's financial structure in 2002, it led to the largest tax increase in Nevada history. This governor is not about to let that happen again, Kieckhefer said.

"No one likes doing this. This is a difficult exercise," he said of the recent budget cuts. "The governor is looking at how we spend money, not how we raise it."

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.