Lawmakers scratching, clawing for budget deal

The posturing lasted several hours but ended where it started, with the Democrat-controlled Legislature at odds with Sandoval over how much state revenue to authorize for 2011-13 and what, if any, major spending reforms should be enacted.

“Still talking,” said state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas. “I don’t think there is any material difference.”

Sandoval is looking to regain the upper hand he lost on Thursday when a ruling by the state Supreme Court called into question as much as $657 million of his proposed $6.1 billion general fund budget.

The ruling emboldened Democrats, who had all but given up hope of raising taxes to fund a $7 billion budget with fewer cuts to education and social services, to revive their efforts to close a budget on their terms.

Democrats had been debating among themselves whether or not they would submit to Republican demands for conservative reforms to items such as education, public employee collective bargaining and benefits, prevailing wage and construction defect liability.

Republicans, particularly in the Assembly, demanded the reforms in exchange for considering the delay of the July 1 expiration, or sunset, of an estimated $679 million in existing taxes.

Sandoval and Republicans had been unwilling to consider trading the sunset date for reforms until the court ruling blasted a hole in the governor’s budget plan. Since the ruling, Democrats have ramped up demands to continue all of the sunset taxes and backed away from committing to reforms Republicans want, particularly on construction defect liability.

“I have said all along that I have no idea why we would bargain K-12 funding for construction defects,” said Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks.

Smith’s hallway remarks drew a sharp response from Assemblyman Mark Sherwood, R-Henderson, who accused Democrats of protecting the interests of trial attorneys who benefit from laws that force contractors to pay attorneys’ fees even on cases in which they’re not at fault.

“It has nothing to do with raising taxes or not,” Sherwood said. “They are hiding behind that.”

Despite some contentious exchanges in public, Republicans and Democrats worked together behind closed doors to come up with a budget deal.

One summary of the impasse showed Sandoval with a general spending plan of about $6.5 billion, including some outside revenue that was called into question by the court ruling. The Democratic budget called for about $6.8 billion in spending and also included some money from sources now in doubt.

The two sides don’t have long to bridge their differences. It could take as long as five days to move budget bills from introduction to completion, longer if a Sandoval veto is expected and the Legislature wants time to override.

The session is scheduled to conclude no later than 1 a.m. June 7. If no budget deal is reached, Sandoval could call legislators back for a special session before the June 30 conclusion of the fiscal year.

Lawmakers and Sandoval are scheduled to meet again today .

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at
bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.