Oughtta be a law

Every election cycle, advocates for annual legislative sessions step forward to argue that Nevada has too much important business for lawmakers to address in just 120 days every other year.

Then the biennial flood of bill draft requests from lawmakers is made public, and the argument looks foolish.

In a state with the nation’s highest unemployment and foreclosure rates and a long list of governments too bloated to make the sacrifices imposed upon the private sector, lawmakers aren’t bashful about wanting to pile hundreds more new laws, mandates and costs on the taxpaying public.

And you thought fighting off tax hikes while saving the state’s “essential services” would command the undivided attention of the 2011 Legislature? Not when lawmakers can hold hearings on texting-while-driving. And requiring the installation of alarms on every child car seat. And creating a primary seat belt law and discrimination protections based on “gender expression.” And on and on.

Multiple bill draft requests seek to prohibit drivers — juveniles and adults — from sending or reading text messages, when motorists can already be cited for failing to pay attention behind the wheel. And when the next generation of technological advances replaces today’s cell phones, can we expect laws to ban those devices, too?

Assemblyman Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas, believes the best way to prevent small children from being left in cars is to force every parent to buy car-seat alarms. Thankfully, no children have died in Southern Nevada this summer after being left in hot cars by their caretakers. That’s proof in itself that the problem doesn’t warrant the creation of a new mandate and a new bill for parents — and a new crime.

Then there are the bad bills that keep coming back from the grave. Every session, police-state backers ask to allow camera technology to issue traffic citations and let cops pull people over just for not wearing a seat belt. Cross-dressers, meanwhile, want to be assured they can’t be fired for going into bathrooms used by the opposite sex.

And how about that request from Sen. Shirley Breeden, D-Las Vegas, for official state recognition of Children’s Day, to honor children? Don’t parents toil daily to remind their kids that life isn’t all about them?

At least one bill draft request has merit and warrants immediate passage: Legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Richard McArthur, R-Las Vegas, to drastically cut the number of bill draft requests. That would be a start.