Governor Brian Sandoval wants to end collective bargaining

On February 24, 2011 Governor Sandoval told Anjeanette Damon of the Las Vegas Sun:

“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

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Laura

A busy 24 hours in Nevada politics

Let's see: Republicans in the legislature are whining, Sen Rhoades is going rogue, Chris G is running for mayor and apparently so is our current mayor Oscar Goodman's wife, Carolyn.

Steve Sebelius' has two blog entries over at Slash Politics on the Las Vegas mayoral race. This kind of stuff only happens in Vegas:

“The more I thought about it, the more there really was no question in my mind,” Carolyn Goodman said in a brief interview this morning.

“We woke up this morning, and Oscar said, ‘Don’t do it.’ And I said, ‘Interesting,’” Carolyn Goodman said. “And I said, ‘I’m doing it,’ so he said, ‘Go for it, girl.’”

[snip]

She joins Clark County Commissioners Larry Brown and Chris Giunchigliani as well as Las Vegas Councilman Steve Ross as the front runners in the race.

HPIC Jon Ralston posts a letter from the Republican leadership in the Nevada legislature. Seems like after nearly a full week of Nevadans sharing their budget cut horror stories, our friends on the right are crying uncle, and looking to make someone else the bad guy. Misery loves company.

And speaking of Ralston and #LVMayor, in a tweet he tags Chris G as a favorite, based on what, I have no idea. But it is peculiar considering three months ago he was calling out Chris G for mayor supporters as "suckers".


Andrew Davey, the Nevada Progressive, sees a possible breakthrough on the GOP side of the Nevada Legislature as Sen Rhoades shakes off the zombie Republican "noooo neeeww taxessss" trance:

Dean Rhoads, the state’s senior senator, became the first Republican lawmaker to publicly break with Gov. Brian Sandoval, saying he thinks the state will need to raise taxes to balance the budget.

Rhoads, who is serving his final year in the Legislature because of term limits, told the Sun that cuts in education and social services in Sandoval’s budget are too deep.

“There will have to be deep cuts like Sandoval proposed, and tax and fee increases,” Rhoads said Tuesday. “We’re going to have to do a combination.” [...]

If you care about Nevada politics, Desert Beacon is a daily must-read. This entry breaks down the logical fallacies in a letter penned by Republican leaders in the legislature:

In short, it is the Nevada Republican Party that is calling for the maintenance of the status quo. After all they have a budget proposal that "that forces government to get more out of less rather than one that increases spending, cripples our economy, kills job growth." This is little more than a succinct restatement of the mantras associated with the "Supply Side Hoax," or as George H.W. Bush liked to call it -- Voodoo Economics.

Justin McAffee of The Nevada View calls Nevada Republicans out for claiming (*cough*LYING*cough*) Nevadans pay high taxes:

As the 2011 Nevada Legislative Session begins next week, interest groups and politicians will be arguing over whether Nevada’s taxes are too low or too high. There is a strong segment of local conservatives and Republicans who think that Nevada’s taxes are too high. The evidence and consensus among academics and think tanks (liberal and conservative) say that Nevada’s taxes are among the lowest in the nation.

And, a blog post isn't complete without Nevada Scandalmongers's wonderful photoshops:


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Laura
laurakmmartin@gmail.com