EDITORIAL: Legislature must refocus

A little more than a month remains in the 2015 Legislature, and lawmakers have lost their sense of balance.

With so much energy devoted to building support for Gov. Brian Sandoval’s $7.3 billion, two-year budget and the more than $1 billion in tax increases required to fund it, Republican majorities in the Senate and Assembly are moving with far less urgency on money-saving government reforms.

If Nevadans must pay more for their governments, then lawmakers must do everything possible to limit the growth of government budgets, stretch revenues further and reduce the pressure for future rounds of tax increases. The surest way to accomplish that balance: labor reforms that better control personnel costs, the largest expense of most Nevada government agencies.

So far, what labor reforms have moved forward would do little to check the escalating government salaries and benefits that squeeze public services, especially at the local level.

For example, Senate Bill 158, already passed by the Senate and sent to the Assembly, requires local governments to release negotiated contracts and background materials at least three days before a government body votes on a new labor deal. A far stronger approach would open bargaining sessions to public scrutiny, where taxpayers could hear offers and arguments from labor and management, and deliver any concerns to elected officials before an agreement is struck.

Assembly Bill 182, which hasn’t yet cleared the full Assembly, prohibits the use of public money on union activities and was written to prevent the unionization of supervisors. But the bill was amended to allow many supervisors to continue to unionize, including school principals.

Nevada’s existing collective bargaining laws haven’t served the public well, resulting in some of the highest-paid government workforces in America. Public employee unions use those laws to shift new revenues into their paychecks instead of new positions needed to provide better services.

Lawmakers must regain their balance. Without bold reforms, tax increases are a nonstarter.