Here’s news you may have missed

CARSON CITY -- Hey, you. Yeah, you, who never bothered to read a word the Review-Journal printed about the 2007 Legislature.

It's time you paid attention, because lawmakers might have done something worth noting.

Don't worry, there will be no bloviating about budgets, committees or caucuses in this story. So read on.

If you're conservative, you'll probably appreciate the fact that legislators ultimately heeded Gov. Jim Gibbons' no-new-tax mantra and did not raise taxes.

They established no new social programs and passed precious few bills intruding on people's personal lives.

A proposal to use cameras to catch traffic violators was dropped. And they refused to back a bill to allow police to stop motorists for simply not wearing seat belts.

"I refer to it as the Seinfeld Legislature," said Chuck Muth, a longtime conservative political consultant, referring to the 1990s sitcom famously "about nothing."

But in Muth's book that's a good thing. "Government does not have to address every single incident in peoples' lives," he said.

As Muth sees it, about the only "nanny state" bill passed was Assemblywoman Francis Allen's proposal to require kids up to the age of 13 to wear life preservers while boating on Lake Mead. That tacks a year onto the current requirement.

Now, to be fair and balanced like the folks at Fox News: You liberals also have a lot to crow about.

Jan Gilbert, a longtime legislative lobbyist for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, maintains 2007 will go down in annals as a great session for liberals.

The Legislature increased the stipend for welfare families, set 15 years ago at $348 a month, to $383.

Legislators also rejected moves to do anything about illegal immigration, killed a bill to make English the official language and refused to take Millennium Scholarships away from worthy noncitizen students.

"Those immigration bills were mean-spirited," Gilbert said. "Why should we deny the Millennium Scholarship to children who didn't do anything wrong?"

The Millennium Scholarship is a $2,500 annual Nevada college tuition grant awarded to students who earn better than "B" grades in high school. About 90 of the current recipients are noncitizens, according to testimony from Jane Nichols, vice chancellor of the university system.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, also engineered into law a bill to control how much interest payday loan companies can charge. Gibbons became her biggest ally when she pointed out some companies were charging 500 percent-plus interest to low-paid soldiers and sailors. (If legislators learned anything about the former fighter pilot, it's that Gibbons is a soft-touch for anything dealing with veterans, soldiers and the National Guard.)

Political persuasions aside, animal lovers should be happy lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill to allow police to break into cars to free dogs and cats suffering because of the heat or cold.

Pet lovers also scored with state Sen. Warren Hardy's bill allowing them to sue for up to $5,000 in damages individuals who intentionally harm their animals. More than a few crying constituents have traipsed over to a neighbor's home to complain about the sure-shot kid with a BB gun.

Parents of teens, take note. The Legislature passed a law that makes you and other adults liable if they knowingly allow teenagers to drink who are subsequently involved in accidents.

Meanwhile, legislators refused to pass a law forcing teens to pay $25 fines for smoking cigarettes.

Figure that one out. Nevada no longer permits smoking in bars and restaurants. It's illegal to sell smokes to kids. But if teens get their hands on a pack, they can smoke in front of the local sheriff.

Lawmakers also decided not to require that bicyclists under 18 wear helmets.

Adults on motorcycles don't have a choice, however: They're required to protect their noggins. An effort to overturn the state's motorcycle helmet law failed, yet again.

Legislators went along with Gibbons' plan to increase the homestead exemption, now $350,000, to $550,000. That's the amount of equity in a home that cannot be taken from its owner because of bankruptcy or lawsuits. Those who currently have homestead exemptions do not have to apply for the higher limit. It is automatic.

That may help some home-owners sleep better at night.

If you need a prescription for a better night's sleep, the Legislature might have helped you out some as well.

Assemblyman Joe Hardy's bill authorizing counties to participate in the National League of Counties' prescription drug card program won approval. The cards cost nothing and bring 20 percent average savings on prescription drugs. The cards should soon be available in medical clinics, doctors' offices, libraries and other public places.

For those who want to comparison shop for health care, legislators passed laws to establish state Web sites where people can find out what their local hospitals are charging for various operations and what local pharmacies charge for prescription drugs. The early analysis is that, unlike with gasoline, good deals can be found on prescriptions and medical procedures.

Since you'll probably continue avoiding stories about legislative business, we'll give you a quick look ahead.

Gibbons kept legislators from imposing higher taxes. But the $1 billion he and Assembly Transportation Chairman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, found for the state highway construction fund is a fraction of the $5 billion shortfall that's growing at an annual rate of 13 percent.

The fight for highway funds began Wednesday, when Gibbons said he intends to carry his no-new-tax pledge into the next legislative session, in 2009.

Muth believes if the governor had not hollered so much about no new taxes, legislators never would have found a way to divert portions of three existing taxes to pay for $1 billion in road construction.

"Starve the beast," Muth said of government. "Jim Gibbons did. He forced everyone to set priorities. We need more of that thinking."

But liberals likely won't be happy about that.

"People can no longer live in a state like Nevada and expect something for nothing," Gilbert said.

To her, that means higher bank taxes, business taxes and diesel taxes on trucks. In particular, some want to see truckers pay the same tax per gallon of diesel that motorists pay on gasoline. They now pay 6 cents less per gallon.

"They say they want better roads and the best for children. But these things cost money," Gilbert said. "The reality is we are never going to get out of the bottom of the barrel unless we change our tax structure."