When Assembly Republicans were in a position of weakness several weeks ago, they preemptively sent Assembly Democrats a list of five demands that would have to be met before they would vote for any extension of the “sunsets” – tax hikes passed in 2009 which are scheduled to expire at the end of June.
And one of the five demands was reform to the “construction defect” law which has allowed the stinking ambulance-chasing trial lawyers to figuratively rape small construction companies with frivolous lawsuits for years.
Naturally, the Democrats just blew the Assembly Republicans off.
But with last week’s Supreme Court ruling that took at least part of Gov. Sandoval’s funding stream away from him, the governor is now negotiating with Democrat leaders for a possible extension of some kind for at least some of the sunsets. And because he can, instead, cut more money from his budget rather than extend the sunsets – and has the votes to back him up in the Senate – the governor is in the catbird’s seat.
Sort of.
Word on the street is that the Democrats are willing to concede, to some degree, on four of the five Assembly GOP demands, but not on construction defects. They are, after all, a subsidiary of Trial Lawyers, Inc.
And the governor, apparently getting some serious concessions on education reform – including changes to tenure and “last in first out” – is reportedly willing to accept a deal without including construction defect reform, asserting that it is private sector reform and not government sector reform.
I disagree. Changing the law to curb lawsuit abuse which is putting construction companies out of business and construction workers out of work is absolutely good government reform. Indeed, it is clearly an important part of the government’s economic development efforts. But I digress.
The problem for the governor and the Democrats is that if all 16 Republicans in the Assembly, who previously already set construction defect reform as one of their five must-have conditions, stick to the guns and INSIST on construction defect reform being part of the deal, neither the governor nor the Democrats will have the 2/3 super-majority vote in the Assembly they need to pass an extension of the sunsets.
Which means Assembly Republicans, not the governor or the Democrats, are actually in the catbird’s seat. That is, as long as they stick together and refuse to vote for any budget deal that doesn’t include construction defect reform.
Will Assembly Republicans, who have it completely in their power to get everything they asked for, have the stones and discipline to stick together in the face of enormous pressure and WIN a huge victory for a key base of GOP support and against a mortal enemy of Assembly Republicans?
I put the odds at considerably less than 50-50. But let’s hope Assembly Republicans “man up” and make me eat those words. I’d like nothing better.
And I like a little ketchup with my crow, please.
As if cops don’t already have enough to worry about on the law enforcement front, SB 140 would add to their burden by “prohibiting a person from using a cellular telephone or other handheld wireless communications device while operating a motor vehicle.”
Apparently it’s still OK to use a wired communications device such as a CB radio. The distinction escapes me. And why do we need a new law to make this specific kind of unsafe, distracted driving a crime when we already have laws on the books against unsafe, distracted driving?
Anyway, this new nanny-state, government-expanding, frivolous, non-essential bill passed out of the Assembly today with only one Republican vote: Mark Sherwood. Go figure.
If you want to know why our government, especially at the legislative level, is so screwed up, one need only look at who is in charge. For example, the Chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, William Horne, apparently is clueless when it comes to permits to carry concealed weapons (CCW).
Churchill County GOP Chairman James Smack emailed Horne a few days ago voicing opposition to Democrat Speaker John Oceguera’s plagiarized gun bill which removes a cap on the $25 license fee for background checks. Here’s the response Smack got from Horne:
“The language I support provides for the ‘nonrefundable fee necessary to obtain the reports….’ for the background. If you set a cap at $25, and the cost to get the records is $35, then the gun shop owner is stuck making up the difference. That’s why I opposed the amendment today.”
Um, as Chairman Smack points out, gun shop owners don’t pay the fees for licensing and background checks; the individual gun owner does. Which means you, not the gun shop owner, will be the one who will get hit with any fee increases. Good grief.
It seems that every session of the Legislature, Republicans elect one complete goofball who insists on making himself or herself a political target for my perverse pleasure. And we have our winner for 2011: Freshman Assemblyman Mark Sherwood. Come on down!
Sherwood first hit my radar screen a little over a year ago when, as a candidate, he informed me via email that he decided not to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge after conferring with special interest lobbyists and moderate, wishy-washy GOP leaders who support higher taxes and who told him not to sign the Pledge.
It went downhill from there.
During this current legislative session, Sherwood – who apparently fancies himself a cross between Karl Rove and James Carville – has been the leading voice of the Capitulation Caucus – Assembly Republicans who have attempted to undermine fellow Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval by pre-emptively negotiating for tax hikes with the Democrats. Indeed, Sherwood has told people that he was negotiating for higher taxes in order to “save” the governor.
And don’t even get me started on his embarrassing appearance a few weeks ago on Jon Ralston’s Face-to-Face program in which he insisted on doing his lame Ross Perot imitation on-camera despite the host’s best efforts to keep the guy from making a complete ass-clown of himself.
Which brings us to this weekend, when Sherwood decided to send the following email to every Republican member of the Nevada Legislature EXCEPT Assemblyman Ed Goedhart…I’m assuming because he knew Goedhart and I work closely together and was afraid Goedhart would forward the email to me. Alas, I got it anyway. Nice try, Mark.
From: “mark@votesherwood.com”
Date: May 28, 2011 8:27:43 PM PDT
Subject: RE: Muth’s Truths: May 25, 2011Republican
He
Is
Not
Oh?
Chuck Muth is not good for the Nevada Republican Party. We need to collectively reject his bi-polar ‘support’. He is not a Republican. He is an opportunist who is far more interested in chasing his next paycheck than truly advancing the conservative cause.
Let’s build the state and county parties the right way and reject Idiot Muth and his Jesse Jackson style tactics.
I’m not sure what Jesse Jackson has to do with any of this, but apparently Assemblyman “Einstein” missed a memo. I haven’t been an operative for the Republican Party in over a decade now, and re-registered as an “independent” over four years ago. I don’t claim to be a Republican, nor is it my job to “build the state and county parties.”
If anything, my job is to help cull from the GOP herd certain elected Republicans who are either too liberal or too stupid….or both. And with that in mind, I want to thank Assemblyman Sherwood for volunteering to be my personal #1 GOP target for electoral defeat in 2012.
Sherwood currently represents Republican-friendly District 21 in Henderson. Potential primary challengers are encouraged to send their resume and statement of interest to chuck@chuckmuth.com
On Sunday, Las Vegas Sun reporter David Schwartz wrote: “As Democratic lawmakers and Republicans, including Gov. Brian Sandoval, tried to negotiate a deal on Sunday, one sticking point was this: Would the Legislature and governor agree to permanently put taxes passed in 2009 into law, or temporarily extend them for another two years?”
Here’s the governor’s position on any deal to make the tax hikes permanent, per a senior Sandoval adviser: “I can say with complete certainty, not a chance.”
Well, that takes care of that. Next?
Perhaps the most awesome lip-sync video ever produded, shot completely without a single camera break, to the tune of one of the greatest early-70s songs ever produced. Hat tip to Steve Sebelius for bringing this classic to me attention.
OK, I promised you a more detailed column about Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling which might result in Gov. Brian Sandoval reversing his position on extending the sunsets, so here goes.
The challenge facing Gov. Sandoval is over the approximately $650 million worth of “temporary” tax hikes former Sen. Bill Raggio engineered with legislative Democrats in 2009 that are scheduled to sunset (expire) on June 30.
Make no mistake, despite dissembling by Sen. Raggio on Friday to the contrary, all of us were led to believe those tax hikes were, indeed, temporary and would not extend beyond next month. If they are, then Nevada’s citizens were lied to. Again.
For Sen. Raggio to claim otherwise is simply not true. Continue reading »
My evil alter-ego over on the Democrat side, blogger Mike Zahara, wrote the following on Saturday morning in his WatchdogWag.com blog:
“Has Chuck Muth Passed Away from Shock?: Normally, I get 75 emails a day from my buddy Chuck Muth informing of the evil of all taxes but only two so far on Sandoval’s change of heart on the soon-to-sunset ones!
“The Nevada Supreme Court intervened again and we now have a deal done if these knuckleheads would just accept the inevitable that some GOPers will support this now. Chuckles, I love ‘ya dude, but it’s not the taxes buddy, it’s the spending and what we’re spending tax money on!”
Actually, Mike’s 99 percent correct. It IS the spending. And it IS what we’re spending the money on. That absolutely, positively IS the problem.
But since liberals and Democrats won’t discuss and debate cuts to non-essential ($20 million to dig a tunnel under I-15 on F Street in Las Vegas) and illegitimate government spending (such as running its own emergency road service operation in competition with the likes of AAA), or set spending priorities (classroom teachers vs. administrators), the only way to FORCE such a discussion is to cut off government’s food supply….tax revenue.
And that’s why no-new-taxes is so critical in this public policy arena. No-new-taxes is not, as is often erroneously claimed, an ideology in and of itself. No-new-taxes is simply a means to the limited-government philosophical end; because no matter how much money you give to the left, or how many government programs you approve for them….it’s never enough.
Gimme, gimme, gimme.
So if you REALLY want to solve the state’s budget problem, give Zahara and I 48 hours, a line-by-line copy of the budget, a box of red pens and two cases of beer (make mine Black Butte Porter with a Jack Daniels chaser).
In their infinite wisdom, Nevada voters approved a constitutional amendment which strictly limits the duration of our legislative sessions to 120 days. For the 2011 session, that means Monday, June 6.
Every legislator has known about this deadline since well before the start of the session. This was not a secret. It is not a surprise. If legislators can’t get their work done on time, they have no one to blame but themselves.
Make no mistake: There is no reason whatsoever for legislators not to finish up their work by June 6 and go home. And there is no excuse whatsoever for forcing Gov. Sandoval to call a special session to pass a balanced budget and keep the government open.
None…what…so…ever.
But if we do go into overtime, it’ll be no one’s fault but the two legislative Democrat leaders – Majority Leader Steven Horsford and Assembly Speaker John Oceguera – who have combined to completely mismanage the 2011 Legislature.
Both have known since the start of the session that the governor was not going to approve a budget that increased taxes. And both have known they didn’t have the votes in the state Senate to pass a tax hike, including an extension of the tax hikes from 2009 which are scheduled to sunset at the end of June.
But instead of accepting that reality, Democrats have engineered a series of legislative dog-and-pony shows featuring “human budgetary shields,” often children, in an effort to shame legislative Republicans into abandoning fiscal responsibility, and Gov. Sandoval into abandoning his campaign promise not to raise taxes.
It didn’t work.
Sure, some Republican “surrender monkeys” in the Assembly might vote with the Democrats to extend the sunsets, but the Senate remains rock solid in opposition. Which means no tax hike will even make it to the governor’s desk, let alone past it. And it’s time for Democrats to accept that reality.
Look, they gave growing-the-government-and-spending-money-it-doesn’t-have-in-the-middle-of-a-recession their best shot…and lost. Get over it, pass the governor’s balanced budget and go home.
There’s no need for a special session. There’s no need to close the government down. Pass the budget and go home. Then…
In 2012, hit the campaign trail and tell the voters, loudly and proudly, that if they elect or re-elect you, that you promise to raise their taxes $1.2 billion. And if the voters, knowing that you will raise their taxes $1.2 billion, elect you…well, then you’ll have a mandate to raise taxes by $1.2 billion.
But for now…you don’t. The voters didn’t elect you to raise taxes. They elected Brian Sandoval to not raise taxes. Accept it. Pass the budget. And go the $#@& home.
OK, I still have to say Sen. Mike Schneider’s nanny-state bill requiring auto repair shops to check your tire pressure under penalty of law is the stupidest bill of the session. But AB 224 could be a close second.
Sponsored by Assemblywoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson (D-Bad Teachers), the budget-busting bill grows government by creating a whole new state office – the Office of Parental Involvement and Family Engagement – whose mission will be to force parents to give a rat’s pitooey about their kids’ education, including the hiring of a new, full-time director whose job it will be to “re-engage disengaged parents.”
Section 3(d)(4) of the bill actually calls for “home visitations” by government bureaucrats who will knock on your door and say, “Hi, I’m from the government…and I’m here to help you care about your children’s education.”
Good grief.
The bill passed in the Assembly 29-13…with three (bad) Republican votes:
Assembly Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea
Assemblyman Tom Grady
Assemblyman Pat Hickey
