Unread bills slide through Nevada Legislature
By Anjeanette Damon and David McGrath Schwartz, Las Vegas Sun
CARSON CITY — Any lobbyist will tell you it’s much easier to kill a bill than to get one through the Nevada Legislature.
But there is a golden hour at the end of every legislative session that is the exception, particularly for industries and individuals with the right connections to a small circle of connected lobbyists.
The end of every session is a frantic rush to close the 120-day process, when lawmakers, lobbyists and reporters have their attention diverted in a thousand directions. And as a result, with the right legislator on your side, the right lobbyist can bypass the political fights, public hearings and debates and slip through legislation, almost unnoticed.
To wit: Five minutes after midnight Tuesday — a mere 55 minutes before the constitutionally mandated close of the 2011 legislative session — lawmakers introduced a policy that could cost NV Energy ratepayers $1 billion.
I’d get rid of every NV legislator that was in the room that night. It’s only a matter of time before the public takes action against these kind of folks. I’m talking about the ones whose interest is really big business instead of the public who elected them to office.