Budget lists
Nevada Democrats on Wednesday castigated Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons because he refuses to release lists prepared by state agency heads revealing where they would recommend 5 percent budget cuts if necessary to head off a revenue shortfall.
They should be careful what they ask for.
“What we have here is a see-saw,” said Assemblyman Morse Arberry, the Las Vegas Democrat who chairs the Ways and Means Committee. “You say no, we say yes.”
The Legislative Counsel Bureau says the lists are public records under state law. The governor argues — and the state’s Democratic attorney general backs him up — that confidentiality is necessary to ensure his department heads offer candid suggestions intended to help executive branch officials deliberate over policy.
Such a stance has some merit — but falls apart when the state budget director admits the documents will be released in January anyway after Gov. Gibbons makes his spending adjustments.
What’s the difference if the lists are in public hands next week or two months from now?
In fact, the governor should release the documents. Holding them back won’t shield him from special-interest criticism concerning the cuts or mitigate the inevitable second-guessing from Democratic lawmakers.
And making the lists public will provide taxpayers with vital specifics about a significant amount of state spending that agency chiefs admit they could live without.
Is that what Assemblyman Arberry and his Democratic colleagues really want?