Assembly OKs highway board measure

CARSON CITY -- With most Republicans voting no, the Assembly passed a bill, 27-14, on Friday that would create a citizens committee to prepare ballot questions on how Nevadans want to pay for highway improvements.

But Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, said the questions prepared by the eight-member committee for voters to consider during the 2012 general election would not be binding.

Still, Assembly Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, said he opposed the bill because if a highway tax question was backed by voters, then legislators would feel an obligation to implement the tax.

Goicoechea said his 16-member caucus took no position on Assembly Bill 152.

Two Republicans, Lynn Stewart of Henderson and Melissa Woodbury of Las Vegas, voted for the bill.

Atkinson said the bill is the same one that former Gov. Jim Gibbons vetoed after it was passed by legislators two years ago.

Under the bill, three of members of the highway advisory committee would be appointed by the Senate majority leader and three by the Assembly speaker. Both leadership positions are now filled by Democrats. The Senate and Assembly minority leaders, now Republicans, each would appoint one member.

In a floor speech, Atkinson, a former Assembly Transportation Committee chairman, said there is a real problem with funding highway construction in Nevada.

"I think our voters are intelligent people," he said. "This gives them a little say so on how roads are funded in the future."