An open Legislature

When the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International released a report card on the transparency of state governments earlier this month, Nevada scored a D-minus grade, ranking 42nd.

“State officials make lofty promises when it comes to ethics in government,” reads the study’s overview. “They tout the transparency of legislative processes, accessibility of records, and the openness of public meetings. But these efforts often fall short of providing any real transparency or legitimate hope of rooting out corruption.”

One specific complaint leveled by the study’s authors: The Nevada Legislature has exempted itself from the state’s own open meeting law, an exemption that means decisions on the state budget and tax increases are made behind closed doors in end-of-session deals, often with lobbyists for special issues actually crafting the final language.

Even the interim legislative committees that meet to make law on an “emergency” basis when the Legislature is not in session are exempt from the open meeting provisions that the Legislature, in its wisdom, applies to every other elected body in the state.

On Monday, Reno Assemblyman Pat Hickey said he’s requested a bill draft to change that. The Legislature itself finds it difficult to follow the law during each regular session because of the Nevada Constitution’s 120-day cap, Mr. Hickey pleads. But he says that while interim committees already follow the provision of the law requiring agendas to be posted three days in advance, that should be codified in law.

Indeed, that would be a good start. Do it, by all means.

But come on. The open meeting law in its entirety should be applied first to the interim committees, and not long thereafter to the Legislature as a whole.

Or does Assemblyman Hickey think getting our rating for openness in government up from a “D-minus” to a “D-plus” is all Nevadans have a right to hope for?