Sen. Skip Daly, D-Sparks, kicked the governor’s ass last week.
Greenhorn GOP Gov. Giuseppe Lumbago’s minions came before the State Senate Government Affairs Committee to push for a government “modernization plan,” dubbed “the Nevada Way” — a slogan apparently copied from UNR President Brian Sandoval’s “Wolf Pack Way.”
Either way, there were few cheerleaders.
“I’d really like to talk about the Nevada Way,” said Sen. Pete Goicochea, R-Eureka, but “I don’t understand it.”
I do. It would give the guv a multi-million slush fund to play politics with, a throwback to old Chicago or Tammany Hall.
Senate Bill 431 “aims to make us more nimble, more strategic and more responsive,” stated Gov. Lombardo’s Chief of Staff Ben Kieckhefer.
Poor Ben. He was an excellent reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal, then got elected to three state senate terms as a Reno Republican. Alas, success has impaired him physically: His bullshit detector is broken.
Daly’s is not. (Appropriate terminology courtesy of the late Tribunite and Nevada Press Association Hall of Famer Dennis Myers.)
“The bill would allow for an increase in the state’s Rainy Day Fund from the current 20 percent of general fund appropriations to 30 percent, with half the increase placed in a new ‘Nevada Way’ fund to be used at the governor’s discretion,” Nevada Current journalist Dana Gentry reported.
Zounds.
Before the legislature convened, the Rainy Day Fund was already stuffed with more than $900 million, highest in history. Nevada’s general fund (state-generated money) for 2022-23 stands at $4.6 billion and will increase to $5.4 billion for 2023-2024. (The state will actually spend more than $24 billion a year starting in July. Most comes from that wasteful federal government, so God-fearing conservatives should send it back, right? Dream on, my precious snowflakes.)
So Gov. Lumbago wants lawmakers to give him control of perhaps half a billion a year which he can spend any way he damn well pleases.
“You have read the Constitution, right?” Daly asked Kieckehefer aide Jim Wells, noting that spending without legislative approval is against the law and violates the separation of powers.
“The way I read (the bill’s) language is (once) ‘we’ve got it, we can do whatever we want with it’ “ without any oversight, Daly noted.
Last week, I recalled author Jeff Greenfield’s warning about new chief executives trying to re-organize the government and the wasteful chaos it creates. (See Jimmy Carter, Bush the Lesser and Czar Donaldov.)
I have longed preached that guys like ex-sheriff Joe Lombardo are possessed of exactly the wrong mindset to be a governor or president.
All-powerful CEO’s have a “my way or the highway” mentality. Do as I say or you’re fired.
A sheriff can demote or ax an underling. A casino boss can fire a dealer who talks back or complains when he feels her up. A governor can’t fire a senator. A president can’t oust a congressman.
Daly gave the newbie guv a seriously needed cold shower.
HER FATHER’S DAUGHTER. Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, holds her dad’s former seat. I knew Senator Joe. The G.O.A.T. would be proud.
Ms. Neal just introduced Senate Bill 394 which “would limit the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to approving tax abatement packages of $500,000 or less.”
No more rubber-stamping billions in corporate welfare freebies for the likes of Tesla. The bill passed the Senate on a strictly partly line 14-7 vote on April 25. So much for Republican fiscal restraint.
“It’s interesting how we can give benefits to the rich but we won’t sit down and give that kind of abatement to the poor. We won’t sit down and give a tax abatement in order to build supportive housing, which will take care of our homelessness problem. But we’ll give $200 million, $500 million to a billionaire so he can get wealthier and not pay taxes in the state of Nevada,” Neal said.
Now you know why your potholes don’t get fixed.
BANNED IN DESANTISLAND. Were I tempted to break my paranoid COVID quarantine, I’d go see “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” now in theaters. The girls coming-of-age film, based on author Judy Blume’s oft-banned 1970 magnum opus, is getting rave reviews.
“I live in Key West — even though we like to pretend it’s not in Florida
— we have the same governor,” Blume said, calling Ron DeSantis “a governor who wants to control everything, starting with what kids can think, what they can know, what they can question, what they can learn, and now even what they can talk about.”
Prohibition is the best promotion for any work, so Desantis should at least get free tickets.
EATING THEIR WORDS DEPT. Last week on Sam Shad’s Nevada Newsmakers TV show, legislative lobbyist Mike Draper said trust has “dissipated tremendously” and in the last three years has disappeared. Lawmakers are all “starting at ground zero,” Draper added.
Shad noted that longtime Republican operative Draper “says they’re feeling the effects of term limits where it’s a new group of legislators first experiencing the building and communicating with media and lobbyists, and the trust isn’t there.”
GOP heavyweight Sig Rogich fronted the term limits initiative in 1994-96. Seeing Democratic voters pouring into booming Las Vegas, Republicans pushed term limits to blunt the power of the vote. Critics predicted exactly what Draper now complains about, a part-time legislature woefully short on experience compounded by a greenhorn governor.
EATING SPENDING CUTS. The midwestern corn-state ethanol lobby won exemption from House Speaker McCarthy’s proposed depression-triggering spending cuts. Expect more.
EATING DRUGS. The past week brought a heavy advertising barrage from Big Pharma giant Eli Lilly for what is heralded as the world’s best-ever anti-obesity prescription which may become the “most successful drug ever.” (I believe alcohol already permanently holds that title, but why quibble with Madison Avenue mad men.)
The fat buster is labeled “Mounjaro.” The joke is on us and anyone who speaks even a little Italian is laughing.
Just reading it aloud without prompting, it readily comes out as “mangia” or “mangia-tah,” Italian for…drum roll, please…the invitation to “eat” hearty.
EAT THIS. Insurance does not cover it so the mangia cure will cost about $1,200 a month.
Mama mia!
Stay safe, get vaxxed and pray for those cruelly afflicted by the cruelly small minds on this small planet.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 54-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org/ Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us
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