Speaking for Nevada - April 2001

Legislative Challenge: Working Together to Solve Tough Problems

by Richard Perkins

As a lifelong Nevadan who now has the honor of serving as speaker of the Nevada Assembly, I am very proud of our state. I am proud that Nevada has, over the past few years, become the envy of the rest of the country with our booming economy and attractive business environment. In a spirit of bipartisanship that our nation’s capital only talks about, our state Legislature has made great strides, reforming our criminal justice system in 1995 and implementing education reform measures in 1997.

But, we must be realistic — there are clouds on the horizon. And it’s going to take continued bipartisan cooperation and leadership to make sure we attack these problems without jeopardizing our economic prosperity and quality of life.

First, the combined debacle of California’s lack of investment in new energy supplies and its failed energy deregulation plan has left all western states vulnerable to an energy disaster of the first order. The analysts are still writing about what went wrong in California, but there is a consensus that two factors in particular combined to put our neighbor into a prolonged energy crisis. California failed to build enough new power plants in the last 12 years to maintain an adequate supply of electricity. This neglect of investment became particularly acute as the California economy soared in the last few years. The lack of supply came at the same moment as the California plan to deregulate the electrical industry. The collision between the lack of supply and throwing the industry into a free market has led to rolling blackouts, massive increases in prices and the fear that things will get worse this summer.

In Nevada, we have avoided some of the worst mistakes of our neighbors, and our electrical supply situation is in better shape. But we must act swiftly to minimize the economic impact of California’s crisis. The Legislature is considering a number of proposals, which include keeping deregulation on hold, and most importantly, suspending the sale of power plants until the supply situation stabilizes. Governor Guinn’s comprehensive plan tracks these legislative proposals fairly closely. The governor’s experience as the chief operating officer of Southwest Gas provides him with a unique and valuable experience in dealing with this economic threat. While there is no way to prevent increases in energy prices, minimizing the economic impact on residents and small businesses, while ensuring reliability, must be at the core of any energy policy we develop.

In addition to the challenges facing us regarding energy, our future ability to serve our citizens in light of continuing growth is in question. Governor Guinn has said that, while he believes we can avoid any tax increases this year, we must confront our "structural defect" problem, the threat that the state’s needs will outstrip the revenue needed to continue providing services, even at the current level. Nowhere is the potential problem more acute than in education. Newspaper headlines warn that our inability to recruit teachers — especially in the fields of math, science and special education — has reached crisis proportions. Some school districts are talking about having to increase class size and are desperately looking for places to cut without jeopardizing education programs.

The quality of education affects us all. As a parent, I want my own children to have nothing but the best education — a sentiment echoed by all parents. The one concern I hear voiced most often by business owners is that workers are too often not prepared for today’s workforce. We have far too many college freshmen taking remedial courses, and far too few high school graduates attending college.

The governor has said he believes we can avoid a tax increase this year, and certainly no one wants to rush into a tax increase if there are other measures that can be taken instead. But the governor is also privately sending signals that he hopes business leaders, gamers, educators and others can get together to come up with a solution.

Our goal — as we confront higher energy prices and the specter of uncertain energy supplies, as well as classrooms without qualified teachers and reductions in education programs — must be balance. Finding solutions to these problems while continuing to protect our economic prosperity will not be easy. But it is a responsibility we cannot afford to evade. As a Nevadan, as a legislator, and in my role as speaker of the Assembly, I am committed to working with Governor Guinn and my legislative colleagues over the next few months to meet these challenges.