Tax plan passes under the wire

The tax package came within a hair of failing in the Senate Friday when

Republicans refused to support it without a two-year sunset clause on the

major tax increases in the bill.

The proposed amendment requiring the taxes to cease in 2011 originally

failed on a 12-9 party line vote. Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, who

has been relentlessly talking about sunsets to any tax hikes since last

fall, stood his ground, threatening to kill the tax package without a sunset

on the sales and business taxes.

The process ground to a halt while the clock edged steadily toward 5 p.m.

By the time Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, blinked and offered up an amendment imposing the sunset, there was only an hour left for

the Assembly to receive, hear and pass the measure.

Their problem: If the bill didn¹t reach Gov. Jim Gibbons¹ office before 5

p.m., he could have delayed a veto until after adjournment of the

Legislature - which would have enabled him to send them into special session

to finish the budget, but without a tax option.

With the sunset on the business taxes and the sales tax, which made up the

majority of the $780 million in revenue, Raggio delivered his end of the deal, bringing not only his but the votes of the majority of the Republican caucus, making the tax increase a bipartisan decision of the Senate. The vote was 17-4 with Sens. Mark Amodei of Carson City, Mike McGinness of Fallon, Maurice Washington of Sparks and Barbara Cegavske of Las Vegas voting no.

With less than an hour left, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas,

moved aggressively to prevent any delay that could make them miss the

deadline. While the Senate dragged through the last-minute political

maneuvering, she had staff explain the contents of SB429 to the membership,

then held the floor debate on the measure - all before the Senate voted to

send the measure to the Assembly.

When SB429 arrived, she declared it an emergency measure, used the Speaker¹s

prerogative to delay further debate until after the vote and, in less than

five minutes, had the two-thirds majority, 29-13, to pass it.

At 4:25, Lauren Soper of the Legislative Counsel Bureau arrived at the

governor¹s office to present the tax plan and one other bill in the package

of nearly a dozen that make up the state¹s total spending plan for the

coming two years. At least 10 others had already been delivered as they were

passed during the day.

Their delivery starts the five-day clock. Gibbons must sign or veto bills

within five days or they become law without his name. If the Legislature

adjourns, they don¹t get to deal with the veto until the start of the next

Legislature in 18 months.

The brinksmanship as the deadline approached was vintage Raggio and what

several observers described as a lesson in political hardball for Horsford,

who is in his first tour as majority leader and a member of leadership.

In the end, veteran legislators Buckley, Ways and Means Chairman Morse

Arberry of Las Vegas and Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera of Las Vegas

all advised Horsford to give in on the sunset issue. As one put it, they can

always impose the same taxes in two years if the economy isn¹t strong enough

to live without them.