Governor rejects four bills
CARSON CITY — As promised, Gov. Jim Gibbons on Thursday vetoed a measure that would authorize the Washoe County Commission to enact a voter-approved gasoline tax increase to raise money to finance transportation projects.
Senate Bill 201 was among four measures rejected by the Republican governor.
Others dealt with fees levied by the state’s water engineer, penalties for taking free periodicals and expanding a consumer health assistance program that Gibbons wanted to eliminate. Those bills were overridden late Thursday by the Assembly.
The governor said he was vetoing SB201 because the advisory question approved by Reno-area voters lacked “a clear and concise statement that the state legislation being sought would come in the form of a fuel tax increase.”
“There is no reason a concept as simple as a tax increase cannot be clearly stated in the call of the question,” Gibbons said. “I support the will of the people but I cannot support bills premised on advisory questions worded in a manner that deliberately obscures the impact of the question from the voters.”
Reno Mayor Bob Cashell has said Gibbons lied to him and Sparks Mayor Geno Martini about the measure when he said he would support anything passed by voters. But Cashell acknowledged Gibbons’ comments weren’t specific to SB201, rather that he would generally support a voter-approved tax increase.
Gibbons also vetoed Assembly Bill 480, which would have increased fees collected by the state’s water engineer, saying he wasn’t aware of “any significant support by industry” for the fees. He added that higher fees during tough economic times “just does not make economic sense.”
Also rejected by the governor was Assembly Bill 257, which would have made it a crime for someone to take more than 10 copies of a free publication. The governor said police have more important things to do.
The governor also vetoed Assembly Bill 122, which would have expanded authority of the state Office for Consumer Health Assistance. Gibbons said he had proposed eliminating the office because it duplicates other government services.
Also, Gibbons said, the office “is not an essential governmental service that the state of Nevada can afford to fund in these tough economic times.”
Review-Journal Capital Bureau reporter Ed Vogel contributed to this report.