Think tank’s Piglet Book jabs Nevada Democrats, Republicans

CARSON CITY - The Piglet Book, a biennial study of government spending and waste by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a conservative think tank, brings a few Republicans to task this year as well as the expected Democrats.

Citing reports originally published in the media, NRPI said Republican Chairman Michael McDonald, a former member of the Las Vegas City Council, wooed the city into a land deal far below market value. The group said he induced the council to sell a 3.9-acre parcel for $1.3 million with the knowledge he planned to flip it for a $1.8 million profit.

NPRI also said the tax returns of Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, show he is earning about $150,000 a year for 25 hours of work a week at the Culinary Training Academy. The study said that Horsford funneled federal grants for job training programs to his employer and that only about half the employees who received training found jobs.

McDonald did not respond to the allegations. Horsford said they were not true.

Tim Hogan, his spokesman, even called the allegations "classic NPRI math." He said that Horsford did not funnel money to his company and that he abstained from voting on the allocation of that money.

Geoff Lawrence, the NPRI deputy policy director who wrote the Piglet Book, said state and local audits are a valuable source of information about government abuse.

"Certainly it is not every politician and every public employee," Lawrence said. "Some groups have figured out how to use the system for their own advantage."

Martin Dean Dupalo, director of Nevada Center for Public Ethics, said the Piglet Book provides a "valuable service" for citizens, although one must look closely for its political slant.

"I don't think there is another organization that comes out with anything like this," he said. "Some of the examples are valid, others questionable."

The Piglet Brook also claims misuse of the system by public employees, not just politicians. An audit, according to the study, showed North Las Vegas city parks' labor costs were $80 to $100 per hour, and employees took excessively long lunches and spent 2.5 hours a day driving around.

Another audit found a contract employee with state government billed the state for 25 hours of work in a day. Another was paid $350 an hour, while a full-time employee in the same job would be paid $71 per hour.

State employees used state-issued credit cards to buy personal items at Home Depot, while Clark County and state employees used their cards to buy gasoline for their personal cars. A state employee stole $5,000 worth of fuel in a year, according to the report.

NRPI also reported that a top Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority official took "five French college girls" to dinner, drinks and clubbing, paying $475 per bottle for wine at taxpayer expense. The excursion was to help the girls with a "homework assignment" to learn about the "Las Vegas brand."

NPRI cites news stories in the Review-Journal, KLAS and other media around the state in almost all the examples of government waste.