Things in this state have a tendency to get big - real big. Nevada's main industry prides itself on bigger and better. Casinos routinely boast how much they spend on development, often hoping the bigger the dollar sign, the more people will come to play.
In 2006, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority projected southern Nevada casinos to spend more than $2 billion in development alone. It's an odd parallel we live with here in the Silver State. We want our casinos to be lavish and expensive, but in District 5 - framed within Boulder Highway, Harmon Avenue, Silverado Ranch Boulevard and the South Strip - Sen. Sandra Tiffany is sure that's no way to run government.
For 14 years, Tiffany has been pulling back on the reigns of spending by the state legislature, which has been desperately trying to grow and spend by leaps and millions.
"Part of the reason we saw TASC [Tax and Spending Control] as an idea whose time had come was because of what we saw in 2003," Tiffany explains. "We saw government growth of 35 percent. There were no brakes on any of the legislators for spending. So we raised taxes to pay for the overspending."
Tiffany, who was on the TASC writing team, doesn't see taxes as the problem. Rather, spending is out of control.
In 2003, the year of the largest tax increase in Nevada history, Tiffany was a member of the Senate's Finance, Government Affairs and Tax committees. In 2005, she served on Commerce, Government Affairs and Tax committees. Tiffany was Vice Chair of the latter two in both of those sessions. Also, she was majority whip, considered a major leadership position.
"The state of Nevada needs to provide the basic services for public safety, public education and public health," she said.
Public education is a needed expense, but Tiffany has been on the bandwagon for breaking up the Clark County School District since her first year in the assembly back in 1993.
Her main reason for the deconsolidation? "To reduce the bureaucracy and put more of the money in the classrooms."
Tiffany finds there is a structural problem with the Clark County School District - and that is its sheer size. CCSD is proud that it is the fifth largest and fastest growing district in the nation with 300,000 students a year making up crowded classrooms annually. It planned on hiring between 1,500 and 2,000 teachers during last year's school year. And in the next 10 years, CCSD is shooting to open 88 more schools as well as hiring 500 more administrators.
It may seem like a good thing that so many people are coming to Clark County, but a big problem with a big school district is a big union. And while there is often talk of a shortage of teachers, Tiffany says the problem is teacher retention and a lack of colleges in Nevada that produce local teachers.
"We can keep the good teachers we already have by paying them for the professionals they are and providing the classroom size reduction where it is necessary," Tiffany said.
The teachers' union failed to return any of Liberty Watch's calls to discuss these issues.
Another concern is that teachers just don't take enough money home at the end of the pay period. Tiffany went to the union and asked, "What is the possibility of escalating teachers' salaries the first five years?"
The lobbyist quickly responded, "No. Everyone gets a 2-percent raise each year. No way around it."
Tiffany probed more, "OK, how about from their first to fifth year, they don't take their retirement benefits and you apply that to their salary?"
Again, the union lobbyist returned with a brisk explanation that teachers cannot opt out of retirement benefits. Although, should a teacher quit before the five-year mark, they are not eligible for that retirement money earned.
"We have entrenched bureaucrats in the administration and it seems to avoid any innovative ideas that could keep the teachers from walking out," Tiffany said.
As a former regional district manager for Intergraph, a Fortune 500 company, she approaches legislation with the mind of a sound and experienced businesswoman. Born in Spokane, Wash., Tiffany went to school for Nuclear Medicine leading her to open a nuclear medicine department in an Anacortes, Wash. hospital. But the business bug bit her and she moved east to Ann Arbor, Mich., where she started her own business called Computer Methods, which sold and operated software and hardware for Nuclear Medicine Image Processing.
She went from technology to medicine and even married a doctor. In all that time, she saw the apparent problems with the healthcare system and doctors' ability to help patients without fear of malpractice lawsuits.
"I know, being married to a doctor, what it was like when they got called to go to the emergency room," Tiffany explains. "And it got to the point where most doctors had to practice like they had a lawyer in the room because people are so litigious."
A few years ago, Gov. Kenny Guinn called a special session when the Nevada hospital trauma rooms closed. OBGYNs were leaving the state in droves because they couldn't afford the medical malpractice insurance. It's ironic that more than a decade before that, Tiffany and her husband came to Nevada from California because of the positive state of his industry.
"After that special session where the problem wasn't completely solved, I came up with the initiative idea of Medical Malpractice Reform," Tiffany said.
She worked with the Clark County Medical Society director and the legislative council bureau to write the first draft on the position. Things take time in the legislature. You have opponents to just about every issue - even matters that are clear benefits to the medical workforce and the constituents. And so, Tiffany is standing her ground on the important issues - she's keeping the momentum.
"I think that medical malpractice is one of the issues we need to keep an eye on in 2007."
Tiffany is certain that what is best for Nevada is keeping those with legislative experience in the Senate. District 5 cannot afford to have a newbie learning the ropes at this critical moment in Nevada history.
"Public education, healthcare costs, taxation and government growth will be very important," Tiffany said. "Having experience makes all the difference in the world."
She painted a realistic scenario of a newcomer representing District 5 and not knowing the history of the issues. "They aren't going to know that we already addressed 100 issues for education or seven different issues for healthcare or 20 for public safety."
Does it slow the legislative process down?
"What would end up happening is that the staff and lobbyists run the legislature," she said.
That could mean more bureaucracy, which Tiffany would like to see less of. She's not concerned about how many bills she can get passed, but instead, how many frivolous ones she can minimize.
"How do you reduce the laws on the books as opposed to putting more on? That's always been a philosophy of mine," she said. "I'm not the one who brings 25 bills to the legislature. I carry the ones that my constituents ask me to carry out."
Tiffany's bills are more about keeping government encroachment out of the people's lives rather than putting more into them. She's been part of Nevada politics long enough to see what she calls frivolous things come across the table. She's bared witness to legislators trying to empower or embolden themselves by how many bills they can get passed. It's transparent because most of them have little or no major public policy. Tiffany calls it "feel-good legislation." Others might call it busywork. Either way, it is not what Tiffany wants to see happen.
She does want the constituents of District 5 to know that she will continue to keep the taxes low and minimal; that she will properly spend the money in the budget and not run up overdrafts asking for more money; and that the ever-so-proud machine called CCSD can be broken down for the betterment of Nevada's children and teachers alike.
That is feel-good legislation. But it's feel-good legislation with a purpose. LW
