“In regard to collective bargaining, there may be a bill,” Sandoval said. “I’ve not seen that bill. I’m watching the progress of such bills and waiting to see if they arrive here at the Capitol.”
On February 27, 2011 Laura Myers of the Review Journal, in one of her infamous rambling opuses declared Governor Sandoval and the Nevada republican party are not going after public employees or unions.
And today, Jon Ralston published a missive and he too fell into line claiming Governor Sandoval had no intentions (no stomach?) to mess with collective bargaining rights.
But over in Humbolt County, our friend Desert Beacon finds this:
In case citizens of Nevada were thinking that what happens in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin would stay in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin -- please see SB 41 (pdf), introduced into the Nevada State Legislature by the Legislative Committee on Operations and Elections at the request of the Governor.
What does it do?
In other words, if the local government doesn't "deem" collective bargaining "desirable" then all bets are off and there will be no collective bargaining. Period.
But surely it was introduced AFTER all those media reports claiming Governor Sandoval had no interesting in collective bargaining, right?
The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Operations and Elections on February 7, 2011.
You have to wonder why our press corps intentionally led the public to believe our governor was staying away from the collective bargaining fight while at the same time that same governor had requested a bill that would essentially do away with with those bargaining rights.
Maybe if SB41 included something about prostitutes they would have noticed
UPDATE:
Desert Beacon provides a SB41 timeline
UPDATE 2:
These questions still stand: if Brian Sandoval was not interested in a collective bargaining bill and wanted it ignored, why was the bill still drafted? Why is it in a senate committee? Why waste valuable legislative time to work on a bill the governor has indicated he has no intentions of passing (and there is not enough legislative support to override a veto)? Who brought Governor Gibbons bill back to life? Sure, the bill will not go anywhere, but why did everyone just roll over and accept Governor Sandoval's word? Especially since he was caught twice praising union-busting Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker. Sandoval may think a bill would never go anywhere, but either he and/or the Nevada republican party may think they have a chance to win an ideological fight in the process.
Check our Desert Beacon (here and here) and Nevada State Employee Focus for more analysis
--
Laura
