EDITORIAL: Will legislative Democrats side with government unions over taxpayers?

With less than a week until adjournment in Carson City, legislative Democrats appear poised to use their majority to kick Nevadans in the teeth.

Barring a handful of unexpected vetoes by Gov. Steve Sisolak, the party may pour the foundation for ballooning state budgets and massive tax hikes, erode or kill proposals intended to advance government accountability, and inexplicably dilute the presidential votes of thousands of Nevada citizens.

Senate Bill 135 represents the most egregious example of the 2019 Legislature’s hostility toward taxpayers. It would allow state workers to collectively bargain. If enacted, this proposal will boost state spending by billions over coming decades to cover ever-escalating personnel costs, forcing tax increases and crowding out spending in other areas. The consequences of sanctioning collective bargaining for government employees are on display throughout the country in jurisdictions that teeter on the brink of insolvency thanks to soaring compensation costs. SB135, awaiting a vote, would be perhaps the most taxpayer-hostile legislation in state history.

Legislative Democrats are also moving bills that protect government and teacher unions at the expense of taxpayers when it comes to transparency and accountability. Senate Bill 224, though amended to make it less offensive, allows the state to keep secret certain information regarding public pensions. Assembly Bill 289 would gut the state’s Read by 3 law, essentially removing the provision mandating that students be held back if they aren’t reading proficiently by third grade. Senate Bill 475 weakens efforts to improve the state’s sham of a teacher evaluation process.

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 287 would strengthen the state’s open records laws by imposing penalties for noncompliance and making it more difficult for agencies to turn away legitimate document requests. Yet it languishes in the Senate Finance Committee, likely thanks to heat from government lobbyists paid by the very same taxpayers they’d like to keep in the dark.

Finally, the Legislature last week forwarded Assembly Bill 186 to the governor. The measure ties Nevada to an interstate compact in which participating states award their presidential electors to the winner of the national popular vote. In other words, if 70 percent of Nevada voters favor Candidate A, yet Candidate B wins the most votes nationally, the state’s electors would be forced to support a candidate that state residents overwhelmingly rejected. The bill represents the Trump resistance on steroids and would be a disaster for less-populated states.

The list of bad legislation goes on, but the message is clear: If these bills become law, while SB287 dies, legislative Democrats will have elevated partisanship and fealty to public-sector unions above the state taxpayers who must foot the bill.