EDITORIAL: Shine light on Legislature

The 2015 regular session of the Nevada Legislature starts Monday, but we can make a pretty safe prediction about how it will end June 1: in a rush that keeps the public in the dark.

Lawmakers can vote on bills without making them available to the public, and without alerting the public to the vote. The notification standards of the state’s open meeting law, which rightly guarantees taxpayers the ability to participate in the decisions that shape the governments they pay for, do not apply to the Legislature. Thus, lawmakers and legislative leaders can hide bills in their desks and spring them, or amendments to them, at the last hour.

The state’s most important and powerful elected body should not be immune to the requirements placed on all other government entities. The Review-Journal’s 21st of 25 policy recommendations to the Nevada Legislature in 25 days: apply the open meeting law to the Nevada Legislature. Give the taxpaying public an opportunity to consider and comment on every bill that’s brought to a vote — especially the last ones of each session.