Vetoing this veto!

Gov. Brian Sandoval on Friday finished signing the bills passed by the 2015 Legislature, approving nearly 550 measures and vetoing just six.

By and large, Sandoval got it right, signing some downright historic and far-reaching pieces of legislation that will benefit real people in Nevada for years to come. But he made mistakes, too.

For example, Sandoval vetoed Senate Bill 183, legislation brought by Sens. Don Gustavson, R-Sparks, and David Parks, D-Las Vegas, and 11 Assembly Republicans. The bill would have re-written the rules that govern the Nevada Transportation Authority by removing anti-competitive language.

Under SB183, for example, the authority would have simply been required to provide fair and impartial regulations and promote safe, economical and efficient service. Gone would be language that also requires the authority to foster sound economic conditions in the motor carrier industry, and to discourage practices that tend to create detrimental competition.

Detrimental competition? Detrimental to the public waiting in long cab lines or fruitlessly trying to get a ride out of the suburbs, or detrimental to the profits of existing transportation companies?

The bill would have eliminated requirements that the authority conclude existing markets will support new applicants for motor carrier permits, that granting permits would foster sound economic conditions in the industry, and that granting a permit to a new operator wouldn’t unreasonably or adversely affect other motor carriers already in the market.

The “free” market, or so we’re told.

Oh, and the bill would only have allowed other taxi and limo companies to intervene in a new applicant’s case if it had “actual or constructive knowledge” that the applicant posed a threat to the physical safety of the traveling public, as opposed to, you know, the safety of the profits of existing companies.

The bill — which passed the state Senate unanimously and survived in the Assembly on a mostly party-line vote — would have been like salt in the wounds of the taxi and limo industry, after it failed to keep ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft out of the market, despite a massive lobbying operation. (That effort was matched only by Uber’s lobbying army.) Sandoval may have decided to cut the industry some slack because of its new competitors, which don’t have to meet all the conditions imposed on taxi and limo operators and their drivers.

In his official message, however, the governor said it was about safety. “Senate Bill 183 seeks to eliminate procedures and policies in Nevada law that govern the Nevada Transportation Authority’s ability to oversee and ensure that a motor carrier operator always transports members of the public safely,” the governor wrote. “The Nevada Transportation Authority’s ability to consider the economic vitality of a motor carrier is an important factor in evaluating whether that operator has the necessary resources to transport members of the public safely and can maintain industry safety standards.”

Because, gosh darn it, sometimes you can afford the stretch Caddy limo with TV, wet bar and disco ball, but you have to skimp and opt for those ultra-cheap piano-wire seatbelts!

There was nothing in SB183 that would have hindered the authority’s ability to determine if an applicant had the wherewithal to provide safe cars. The bill called for the authority to promote safe service, and the bill specifically allows intervention by people who have information that directly relates to the ability of new applicants to operate safely. Nobody would have been imperiled had Sandoval signed the bill; the only beneficiaries are the owners of existing transportation companies, who will continue to have outsized influence on who can operate in the closed-market, guild-dominated world of Nevada transportation.

There is certainly a place for government regulation of the market for the benefit of consumers, but the rules on Nevada’s books are there for the benefit of the companies that serve the public, not the people. The veto of SB183 was a missed opportunity to trim away some unnecessary rules.

Steve Sebelius is a Las Vegas Review-Journal political columnist who blogs at SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.