See through

With the stated goal of promoting more accountability in state government, Senate and Assembly Democrats in Carson City rolled out six proposals Tuesday, covering topics from agency performance to the creation of a centralized grant-writing office.

Among the proposals:

-- A performance budgeting bill, which would require state agencies to set benchmarks, report on their progress and make their self-assessments public. The bill also requires that the public be allowed to weigh in on projects before budgeting decisions are made.

-- A plan to require nonprofits to account for how they spend state funds.

-- A measure mandating that state agencies with websites post minutes.

-- Assembly Bill 240, which takes a stab at openness by requiring that state contracts be restricted to businesses that are licensed in the state of Nevada. The bill also does away with classifying some workers as consultants and others as employees, a differentiation that allowed consultants to be paid more than state employees for the same job.

-- And Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, wants to create a centralized Office of Grant Procurement and Operations and Management to identify and draft grant proposals for economic and education development.

As usual, the devil can lie in the details. Encouraging state agencies to do business with Nevada-based firms is a fine idea in some cases, but goods and services are less expensive in America because they move easily across state lines.

Most of the proposals offered Tuesday are housekeeping measures, which would have the admirable effect of increasing transparency in state government. With a little tweaking to limit unintended consequences, most are worth enacting.

But 16 weeks can seem to fly in Carson City. The clock is ticking on a Legislature required by June to either pass Gov. Brian Sandoval's budget proposal or -- if they balk at the spending levels proposed there -- to propose their own plan with an eye on spurring an economic recovery.

The delegates must be wary of distractions from their main purpose.