EDITORIAL: For County Commission

The Clark County Commission is often referred to as the most powerful elected body in Nevada. You wouldn’t know it from this fall’s campaign.

The commission makes policy for unincorporated areas of the county, including the Strip. Three commissioners are up for re-election this fall in low-profile races against unknown challengers who have almost no funding. The Review-Journal offers the following endorsements:

In District E, Democrat Chris Giunchigliani, a former state lawmaker and schoolteacher, is seeking a third term against Republican Joe Thibodeau, a retired Clark County Building Department employee.

Few elected officials in Nevada are as knowledgeable, accessible and pleasant as Ms. Giunchigliani. She is a walking policy encyclopedia, someone who is as effective dealing with a neighborhood code enforcement issue as she is leading discussions on huge issues such as mental health or higher education. She works exceptionally hard and always does her homework. That said, few elected officials in Nevada are as supportive of public employee unions and ever-higher taxes. Yes, Ms. Giunchigliani voted against a sales tax increase to bolster funding for Southern Nevada police departments, but only because of the regressive nature of sales taxes. She wants to boost police funding through higher property taxes, and she wants higher property taxes across the valley to prop up money-losing University Medical Center. The region’s local governments have some of the best-compensated employees in America, yet she’s convinced cities and the county don’t collect enough tax money.

Mr. Thibodeau, unfortunately, does not offer voters much of an alternative. He also opposes the police sales tax increase — although he wants no tax hike at all — but he’s a big fan of taxpayer-subsidized green energy boondoggles and, as a former public employee collecting a government pension, he believes the county’s unsustainable public-sector pay scales are just fine, thank you.

We applaud Ms. Giunchigliani for her opposition to a proposal to exempt UMC’s new operating board from parts of the open meeting law, but our fiscal philosophies are just too far apart for us to support her re-election. And Mr. Thibodeau isn’t a viable replacement. The Review-Journal offers no endorsement in District E.

In District F, Democrat Susan Brager, a real estate agent, former Clark County School Board trustee and former school district aide, is seeking a third term against Independent American Lyal Darrel, Libertarian Jason Smith and Republican Mitchell Tracy, an insurance claims adjuster.

Ms. Brager provided great leadership and taxpayer advocacy last year during the commission’s months-long debate over the More Cops sales tax increase. It was her skepticism and study that shined a light on the size of the Metropolitan Police Department’s reserve account and clarified that a 0.15-percentage-point increase, the maximum increase the commission could approve, wouldn’t put very many new officers on the valley’s streets. She supported half the increase, and her principled stance against the full increase showed real courage. She’s also one of only a handful of elected Democrats to oppose Question 3, the margins tax on this fall’s ballot, as “unhealthy for business.” And she supports ending costly longevity pay — bonuses not based on performance, but merely for sticking around — for future county hires.

While we appreciate Mr. Tracy’s desire to save local taxpayers’ money, his plan to accomplish that — sticking tourists with higher taxes — is bad economic policy. The Review-Journal endorses Susan Brager for Clark County Commission, District F.

In District G, Democrat Mary Beth Scow, a former School Board trustee, is seeking a second term against Republican Cindy Lake, a real estate agent.

Ms. Scow, like Ms. Brager, is concerned about the pressure placed on county finances by ever-growing personnel costs. Ms. Scow supports getting rid of longevity pay for future county hires, which would save more than $100 million in the decades ahead; she believes elected officials, not arbitrators, should settle bargaining impasses with unions; unlike many local elected officials, she doesn’t support changing the state’s property tax caps to boost government revenues; and she opposes Question 3 because of the harm it will cause to small businesses.

Ms. Lake, former chairwoman of the Clark County Republican Party, is running on a platform of fiscal responsibility. She’s certainly to the right of Ms. Scow. But her alarmist opposition to fluoride in drinking water and concerns about so-called “chemtrails” in the skies makes us wonder how many other conspiracy theories she believes. The Review-Journal endorses Mary Beth Scow for Clark County Commission, District G.