If they can dream it up … it’s the law!
Though some will always seek to make the Silver State more like oppressive and actuarially bankrupt California or New Jersey, Nevada is still blessed with a part-time Legislature, limited to working its mischief a mere 120 days in odd-numbered years.
As each of those biennial sessions draws to a close, a predictable scramble to pass huge omnibus spending bills ensues. In that 36 hours of chaos, bills are rewritten and rushed to the floor by lobbyists and lawmakers alike — promptly approved by delegates who can’t possibly have read all the details. Asked what they have just enacted, the more honest ones will admit, “We’ll just have to wait and see when it comes back from the printers.”
Some say the answer is a full-time Legislature. That’s like saying the best way to stay healthy is to live full-time in a hospital, inviting the trainees to experiment on you — with no limit on what they can bill you for their “services.”
The real answer is for our elected representatives to prioritize their work, busying themselves early with the more important issues earlier on.
This is the context in which we must view the 160 requests for year-2009 bill drafts submitted so far by our state legislators.
Yes, many are mere “wish list” stuff submitted to please some constituent. Many will be stillborn — usually a blessing.
But far too many of the limited 120 days of the 2009 session will be spent dealing with proposals which already include:
Two schemes which will tend to make health insurance less affordable, ensuring that more Nevadans go without — the first a proposal from Assemblyman James Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, mandating insurance coverage for autism screening and treatment, the other, from Assemblyman Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, requiring health benefit plans to provide coverage for acupuncture.
No one is saying these treatment options can’t be good things, mind you. The question is why Nevadans shouldn’t be left free to shop for cheaper, “a la carte” health plans.
(At least there’s no likelihood of a drop in the incidence of autism: To help assure that, Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson, wants to provide more tax-funded “free” immunization shots for kids, loading them up with ever more toxic preservatives. Perfectly normal for these kids to scream all night when they get their shots and then forget how to walk; ready for your next dose?)
Meantime, who could have missed the frenzied public outcry for state licensing of sheet metal workers? Well, most of us, actually. But not Assemblyman Jerry Claborn, D-Las Vegas. Can anyone spell “union protectionism”?
Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, wants to “prohibits cyber bullying.” That’ll be an easy one to enforce — just hire enough cops to read all the text messages and e-mail being sent to and from every teen-age girl in Nevada, in real time … and then provide the COPS with anti-suicide counseling.
Assemblyman Lynn Stewart, D-Henderson, wants to “prohibit certain demonstrations at a funeral, memorial service or ceremony.” This is presumably targeted at misguided groups that make soldiers’ funerals their locale of choice to picket against the tolerance of homosexuals in the armed forces. This choice of tactics is repulsive, but it’s not clear the First Amendment allows the restriction even of “repulsive” speech on public sidewalks.
Meantime, if we needed any more evidence that today’s Safety Nazis honor their agreements and compromises about as well as their German namesakes (“Of COURSE we’ll be content with the Sudentenland!”), try to remember how brief a time it’s been since they agreed to accept a compromise under which mandatory seat-belt use was declared a “secondary” offense — not independent grounds for a traffic stop.
Yep, comes now the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security, seeking to “make failure to wear a safety belt in a motor vehicle a primary offense.”
How about Poland, guys? Will you be content with Poland?
Well, no. Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas seeks to prohibit minors from using cellular telephones and similar devices while operating motor vehicles. Only minors. Really. Never gonna extend that to adults. Scout’s honor.
Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, wants to require certain training in the correct installation of child restraint seats. And the Assembly Committee on Transportation wants to restricts the use of mobile billboards. Really.
Mingling and confusing the undertakings of Washington and Carson City — they’re supposed to be independent of one another, you’ll recall, as a safeguard against “consolidated” government — Sen. Bob Coffin , D-Las Vegas, seeks to “enact provisions relating to the Department of Motor Vehicles and registration under the Federal Selective Service Act.” I can hardly wait.
Seeking to make government more powerful, meddlesome and expensive as usual, state Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, seeks to “make service on county commissions in certain larger counties full-time employment.”
Referring to the euphemism which does nothing to relax zoning codes and thus allow construction of less expensive housing, instead simply requiring home-builders to sell some of their houses to select buyers below cost and pass along the cost to the rest of us, Assemblyman Joseph Hogan, D-Las Vegas, seeks to “make various changes concerning affordable housing.”
Both Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, and Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson, want the Legislature to meet every year. What a team.
And winning the award for the worst idea to date, Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, wants to assure that the amount of tax money expended per pupil in Nevada “meets or exceeds the national average” … regardless, presumably, of whether the results exceed the national average. (If every state decided to spend more than the national average, would all the children end up “above average”? Paging Garrison Keillor.)
On the bright side, Sen. Care does deserve credit for proposing to “require broad construction” by the courts “of the initiative and referendum single-subject rule in favor of proponents of ballot questions.”
And Assemblyfolk Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks and Lynn Stewart, R-Henderson — along with Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas — want to authorize the donation of medication by cancer patients.
The only silly thing there is that they should need state authorization to do so.