Long line of losers heads home after embarrassing legislative sessions

This is the time normally reserved for sorting out the winners and losers at the Nevada Legislature.

Traditionally, the winners receive accolades for their political craftsmanship, while the losers absorb one last wasp sting before limping home for the summer.

But this year's Legislature joins the '62 Mets and the Washington Generals in the ranks of also-rans.

Winners are hard to find. As ever, the people of Nevada, who receive neither the quality of life nor the caliber of government they deserve, are the day's biggest losers.

With that in mind, I'll proceed straight to the other losers. Heaven knows there were enough of them.

-- Gov. Kenny Guinn: His call-to-arms and loose talk that anyone who might balk at the largest tax increase in state history was "irrelevant" immediately polarized the process. He'll have to scramble to leave a gubernatorial legacy that doesn't resemble a train wreck, and surely by now he realizes his advisers sold their emperor a whole new wardrobe.

-- The Governor's Task Force on Tax Policy: All its work, much of it compelling and important, turned to confetti when its findings were allowed to divide the session. The relentless resurrection of a gross receipts tax on business only helped paint task force members as hyperbolic hand puppets for Gaming Inc.

-- Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio: The GOP's big chief in the upper house couldn't keep his people on the reservation and nearly got bounced from the leadership position of a caucus he has dominated for two decades.

-- Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins: Cocky at the opening bell, he was battered by the end of the fight. His promise that no tax package would pass from the Assembly without a broad-based business assessment became a target for his opponents.

--Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick: His four-corners stall worked right up until the time he failed to produce substantial cuts to what he had touted as a fat-riddled budget. In the end, he looked like the obstructionist he was accused of being.

-- Assemblyman Bob Beers: Mr. Anti-Tax led the Republican 15 against the inherent evils of the historic Guinn increase. In the end, he couldn't gather anything approaching a coalition and watched as the Legislature passed a record-setting $836 million tax hike. An $836 million tax hike leaves no room to gloat.

-- Gaming Inc.: So much for the gambling crowd's reputation as the Great and Powerful Oz. If a gaggle of CEOs don't quickly rewrite the industry's legislative game plan, including paying closer attention to future assembly races and jettisoning some hilariously overrated insiders, then a repeat performance is a real likelihood in 2005.

-- The Nevada Supreme Court: Who's the eighth justice, Rodney Dangerfield? Talk about no respect.

Six justices go out so far on a limb that NASA scientists can't track them when they vote to set aside the constitution's two-thirds tax rule. Then, as a show of thanks, the Legislature refuses to step up and pass a broad-based business tax by a simple majority. It must make the beleaguered justices wonder why they bothered taking the legislators seriously, and now members of the high court face the threat of a voter recall.

-- Congressman Jim Gibbons. Yes, he's the father of the two-thirds idea, but his rapid pandering to the frothing crowd made him look more like a political vulture on the make for higher office than a statesman who deserved a promotion.

-- Banks and Big Business. Sure, they eluded major tax hits, but they're still stuck with a dumbed down public school system that promises a future work force that can't break the "You Want Fries With That?" barrier.

-- Assemblyman John Marvel. He cast the deciding vote to end the madness, but he was no hero. He would have been a hero if he had cast that vote on the final day of the regular session. After three overtimes and a Supreme Court decision, he only proved he was tired of losing and wanted to go home to Battle Mountain, chided nationally as the "Armpit of America."

Then again, anywhere smells better than Carson City these days.

John L. Smith's column appears Fridays in the Nevada Appeal. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295.