Deregulator: Alive since '85!

Nothin' doin' Kenny Guinn gave lawmakers the equivalent of a time out Thursday, adjourning the special session of the Legislature until June 25. No tax plan came close to getting a 2/3 majority, and the Democratic leader in the Senate, UNLV professor Dina Titus, left town on Wednesday to take a scheduled vacation in Spain. The session cost taxpayers at least $135,000. Now if lawmakers had used that time to, say, trim several million dollars in spending, it would have been money well spent. (As the Fram oil filter commercials used to say, you can pay me now or pay me later.) But they didn't. So here's my recommendation: Send the bill to Kenny. Assembly Republicans said at the end of the regular session if Guinn didn't re-open the budget and allow programs to be trimmed, no tax plan would get a 2/3 vote. They lived up to their word. So the entire 10-day exercise was a waste. Guinn didn't believe them. So now, let's ask him to pay.

Special Session update I've posted nothing about the 19th Special Session of the Nevada Legislature because not much has happened. So here's a weekend wrap: The session was slated to adjourn at 5 p.m. Friday, but it didn't, because lawmakers have failed to agree on a bill to finance K-12 schools and a tax plan to pay for that and everything else. On Friday afternoon, Kenny Guinn extended the session 48 hours, but when neither legislative house could get the two-thirds majority needed to pass the tax bill on Saturday, Guinn told everyone to go home and try again starting Tuesday. Long-term, this Legislature could redefine Nevada politics for decades. The arrogance, tone-deafness and high-handedness of Guinn and his cabal of gaming executives, public employee union bosses and legislative insiders dreamed up a plan to increase state spending by roughly 40 percent, refused to negotiate with anyone outside their inner circle, and said, Take it or leave it. A sufficient number s...