Rhoads has new position on Sandoval budget

CARSON CITY -- Sen. Dean Rhoads, considered a crucial swing vote in Nevada's "tax or ax" debate, said he supports Gov. Brian Sandoval's plan to balance the state budget with no new taxes after meeting with him Wednesday afternoon.

That's a different tune from earlier this month when a news report quoted Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, saying that Sandoval's proposed budget cuts were akin to "taking wheelchairs from senior citizens" and that a combination of cuts and taxes would be required to balance the budget.

Rhoads met with Sandoval in the Capitol for about 30 minutes and emerged saying Sandoval promised to consider changes to appease the senator's concerns about how budget cuts would affect his rural district.

"I told him I would support the budget," Rhoads said.

Sandoval, a Republican, is seeking to balance the first biennial budget of his term and fulfill a major campaign promise to oppose tax increases.

That means proposing a general fund spending limit of about $5.8 billion for 2011-13, about 6.4 percent below spending levels of 2009-11.

To do so, Sandoval proposed major cuts to education, social services and other state programs, in addition to pushing some state services down to county levels and offering about $1 billion in "gimmicks" and one-shot revenue increases.

Democrats, who control both houses of the Legislature, have decried the harm they say Sandoval's budget cuts would do to the elderly, poor, schools and colleges and the state's long-term competitiveness in the global economy.

But without the two-thirds majority needed to approve a budget of their own against Sandoval's will, Democrats need to stick together and lure three Republican senators and two Assembly members to their side.

Rhoads, who supported tax increases in 2003 and 2009, is serving his last term in the Senate because of term limits and is seen as a potential Republican defector.

"If anyone is in position in the Republican caucus to consider new taxes it would be Sen. Rhoads," said Danny Gonzales, a professor of political science at Great Basin College in Elko, the heart of Rhoads' rural district. "I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the governor's office today."

Sandoval senior policy adviser Dale Erquiaga said Sandoval wouldn't comment on conversations held in private.

Asked to respond to Rhoads' statement that Sandoval said he would consider moving money around beneath the $5.8 billion cap to appease the senator, Erquiaga said, "In general, the governor has told legislators as long as they can remain within the lines of expenditures ... the governor respects the Legislature and will be glad for them to do that."

Specifically, Rhoads said he was concerned about the proposed closure of the Wells Conservation Camp in Elko County and that he wanted Sandoval to exclude rural counties from a plan to pass current state responsibilities to county governments.

Rhoads also said he thinks Sandoval can ease concerns about proposed cuts to health and human services in rural communities within the confines of the no-tax pledge.

"If we can find some money in some other area that we can cut down, a lot of these issues I have got in rural health could be handled with just a shift," Rhoads said.

Since his earlier statement on taxes, Rhoads has steadily backtracked after receiving pressure from the Republican Senate caucus and constituents stirred in part by robo-calls from the conservative group Citizen Outreach.

Late Wednesday morning Senate Minority Leader Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, said of Rhoads, "I talked to him and we are good."

Former Sen. Mark Amodei, now chairman of the state Republican Party, said party leaders would encourage constituents to keep calling Rhoads.

"You can't tell Republicans how to think, but we will sure as hell tell them how to get a hold of these folks," Amodei said.

Asked what leverage anyone, be it a party leaders or a voter, has over Rhoads considering he won't likely face another election, Amodei said, "It is not a pleasant thing to think about ending your career knowing a lot of people are disappointed in you."

Considering Rhoads' status as a swing vote, his evolving positions, and the fact that the Legislature has completed just three of the 120 days it is scheduled to be in session, Gonzales said it is a good bet the budget bargaining will continue in earnest.

"The Republican caucus right now is making every attempt to make sure everyone is in line," Gonzales said. "We'll get a better sense in the next month or so where Dean Rhoads stands on taxes."

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.