MARK MY WORDS
BLINDED EFFORTS
BY MARK WARDEN

In Carson City, no one can possibly read all the bills. Legislators regularly defer to committee votes and recommendations from committee members, usually along partisan lines. That’s fine if your representative trusts the judgment of committee 

members, but even they often fail to thoroughly consider bills or hear outside opinions. So decisions are made based on brief written summaries or testimony from biased witnesses from special interest groups.

Lobbyists, however, read the bills. Sometimes they will catch vague or bad language that committee members don’t. Lobbyists from Nevada Concerned Citizens are quite astute at reading bills and offering improved, clear, common-sense language as amendments. Their work is a valuable service to Nevada taxpayers, but there are too few like them looking out for us.

Most lobbyists are on-hand to get more money for programs, more regulation to limit competition for their employers, more legislation to entrench their power base and validate their existence.

On a recent visit to Carson City, I found the residents to be nice folks. Legislative staff and those at the Legislative Counsel Bureau were also helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. The town, with its historic buildings, quaint tree-lined streets and snow-capped mountain backdrop, is a lovely, picturesque place to visit. It’s a shame to have such a nice travel experience sullied by the free-spending, freedom-squelching actions of legislators who call Carson City home for 120 days every other year.

To them, if you are the pro-liberty, small-government type, there’s no room for you in Carson City. Their group-think is all about how to use the power of government to control and regulate Nevada businesses and citizens. Even Republicans (with the notable exceptions of Sharron Angle and Bob Beers) regularly vote for more government programs and spending, tighter controls on business and industry, and the extended reach of monopolistic, socialistic government-provided education.

There is definitely a “herd mentality” among legislators to pass new laws, supposedly in order to “help the children” and “do more for Nevadans.” In reality, their blinded efforts do nothing more than hurt Nevada, its people, business and future.

Nevada representatives are quite accessible. It’s easy to bend the ear of an assemblyman or senator. Most are good at responding to e-mail as well as phone messages. It’s essentially up to you to be influential. LW