Editorials

In constructing a list of the state’s highest policy priorities, giving Southern Nevada firefighter unions more political and bargaining power ranks just below a 7 p.m. last call for alcohol and mandatory annual colonoscopies.

The discredited left can find little to say, save that she was “divisive.” How refreshing, then, to hear the enthusiasm in the equally widespread reports that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died Monday at age 87, managed in her remarkable 11-year tenure at Downing Street to vanquish socialism and restore the free market to Britain.

Nevada lawmakers are focused on party priorities and the state institutions they oversee. They’re far less concerned with the requirements of their offices and the laws that govern their own behavior.

Nevada’s minimum wage won’t change for at least another year. Labor Commissioner Thoran Towler announced last week the minimum hourly rate will remain at $7.25 for workers who receive health benefits from employers and $8.25 for workers who don’t.

The Clark County School Board has abandoned a national search for a new superintendent before it could start. On Wednesday, the board voted 6-1 to end negotiations with search firm McPherson & Jacobson. The move was embarrassing and shortsighted, but not terribly surprising.

The importance of city politics was on display Wednesday at Las Vegas City Hall, the day after local voters again blew off municipal elections.

Many a relatively recent arrival to Las Vegas is heard whining that their adopted state in “last in everything.” Ignore for the moment the fact that they’re often wrong — Nevada is now near the national median in both tax collections (more’s the pity) and tax-funded school spending, for example.

Southern Nevada governments need leadership and sacrifice from their elected stewards, especially in fiscal matters. The valley’s economy is vulnerable, families are hurting, businesses are struggling and the public sector, across the board, still has more money going out than coming in.

Nevada voters approved medical marijuana at the polls, placing it in the state constitution more than 12 years ago and instructing: “The Legislature shall provide by law for … appropriate methods for supply of the plant to patients authorized to use it.”

The mind struggles to come up with a more jaw-dropping exercise in hypocrisy than when leaders of both the Democratic and Republican caucuses testified late last month in Carson City favor of Assembly Bill 407, legislation supposedly intended to prevent the seating of lawmakers who don’t live in the districts they represent.