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Tarkanian to lead governor's petition drive for public collective bargaining
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU
Updated: Jul. 13, 2010 | 8:56 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Defeated U.S. Senate candidate Danny Tarkanian will lead Gov. Jim Gibbons' petition drive in Southern Nevada to require that collective bargaining negotiations for schools and local governments be conducted in public.
Tarkanian said he met with Gibbons after both Republicans were defeated in the June 8 primary election and told him, "I have five months open." The signed petitions are due Nov. 9.
He agreed to take over the petition signature collection drive in Clark County and to have some of his volunteers work in other counties.
Under the petition, local governments, school districts and unions bargaining on behalf of public employees would be required to follow the open meeting law. That means they would have to post notices of meetings and allow members of the public to meet and speak.
Tarkanian said he has 35 volunteers prepared to collect signatures. He has time for the petition drive because he won't be campaigning as he had planned.
At this time, Tarkanian said he does not know whether he will seek political office again. He also was defeated in bids for the state Senate and the secretary of state.
He expressed confidence that the petition drive will be successful just using unpaid volunteers.
Robin Reedy, Gibbons' chief of staff, said Monday that the governor will oversee the collection effort and work to find additional volunteers.
"People completely underestimate him," she added. "The governor has been quite successful on other petitions."
In the past, Gibbons led the drives that culminated in the constitutional amendment requiring at least a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature to increase taxes and to require that education budgets be approved by the Legislature before all other budgets.
The governor and Tarkanian must collect 97,002 valid signatures by the deadline . If they do, the matter will be placed before the Legislature in February. If legislators reject the petition, then voters would decide whether to enact it as a state law in the November 2012 election.
Unlike most other petitions, Gibbons' Open Government Initiative was not legally challenged in the weeks after Gibbons filed it with the secretary of state's office in May.
Danny Thompson, secretary-treasurer of the state AFL-CIO, on Monday questioned whether a serious attempt will be made to collect signatures, and why the petition is needed.
"I tried to do a petition with volunteers and failed," he said. "It doesn't work. It costs a lot of money (to qualify a petition). We viewed this as an election ploy by the governor. Now if Mr. Tarkanian is involved, I don't understand why."
Reedy, however, pointed out that as a lame duck governor, Gibbons can do little or nothing until his term ends, but has chosen to work on the petition effort.
"What does he have to gain?" she asked. "We could skate for six months. He believes in this."
She expects that as the drive gains momentum, people will donate to the effort and ultimately paid volunteers will be used to collect some signatures.
As an example of why the petition is unnecessary, Thompson said public employee unions across the state have been voluntarily agreeing to salary concessions because of how the poor economy has affected tax revenue.
He said a law passed last year now requires a public meeting and a public vote before any contracts are approved by public bodies that lead local governments and schools.
If public employee unions and governments were required to follow the open meeting law during contract negotiations, he said, "you never would resolve anything."
In earlier prepared statements, Gibbons noted he tried twice during the special session of the Legislature in February to persuade legislators to make collective bargaining negotiations public, but the Democrat leadership did not consider his proposals.
Because salaries make up 70 percent to 80 percent of local government and school district spending, agreements on most spending are made in secret, he said.
"By the time these sweetheart salaries are voted on, the secret backroom deals have been cut and the perks and dollars keep adding up to higher taxes," Gibbons said.
On his petition website, Gibbons posts links to TransparentNevada, which lists salaries paid to most local government employees by name and salary. The site belongs to the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a conservative think tank based in Las Vegas.
In Clark County, 103 public employees, mostly firefighters, earned more than $233,500 in 2009. In contrast, the governor in Nevada by law earns $141,000 a year.
"What argument can anybody make against this?" Tarkanian asked. "It's public dollars that are being spent."
Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.
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Most state employees do not have collective bargaining rights. This is all about GREEDY FIREMEN and their quest for more and more money and less work! For years they have been using the image and sacrafices of the hard working New York firemen as leverage to get raises which they have done nothing to earn...unless spending hours at costco is now considered heroic for a Las Vegas fireman.
Ok people here it is. State workers ie firefighters Law Enforcement are not union. I've been a state C/O for over 3 years and make $45,500 a year and haven't seen a penny more since the state voted on freezing my salary and rasing what I pay for everything yes 39% of my check is gone every year. Oh I don't make $45,500 since furlough took away 4.6% from my check and yes I still pay out 39%. Now look at City workers and stop lumping them in with State. Yes state firefighters make even less then I do. Lets acually think of ways of solving the problem instead of making new one's. Oh yeah thats right politicans only think how they can put more money in their pockets and their friends pockets or did everyone forget the pay raises Gibbons gave to his cronnies before his vote of salary cuts. Sandoval what did he do for Nevada when he was the AG oh yeah sue to raise taxes. More taxes need to be collected form the haves not the have nots as is always done. Yes you rich complain I pay to much I need my taxes slashed and who picks up the tab the middle class. How about we look at diversifying the taxes and have everybody who does business in Nevada pay their fair share
Kilgore, what you need to realize is that District Attorneys in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and San Diego (where I worked as a prosecutor for several years) are paid far less despite the outrageous cost of living in those cities. It is unheard of to pay lazy prosecutors 1/4 of a million dollars per year. Assistant United States Attorneys are paid less than half of the majority of Clark County prosecutors. New York City Firefighters, who answer an average of 33 calls per night, are paid $41,000 per year, not 250K like so many CC firefighters. Public unions and district attorneys have sucked the teat of this once prosperous County completely dry. I have no problems paying taxes--but I do have a problem when the 104,000 I paid in taxes in 2009 is squandered on outrageous salaries for bureaucrats instead of parks, roads, schools, etc. The salaries for the public employees in Clark County (except the school district) are not sustainable, unrealistic, and need to be slashed. I will not leave the U.S., I have lived abroad and love the Constitution and freedom, and I have every right to complain in this forum and anywhere else regarding the use of my tax dollars.
Bob Hastings, you should go back to hunting ufo's. I've heard northern Ohio is a fertile hunting ground.
Count me in to sign this...transparency is essential to good government. But it's funny to see the kinds of things an article like this brings out in the comments.
@Lawyer: Rather than gloat/whine about all you own and earn (and consequently pay taxes on), you should find another country where you'll have the opportunity to own and earn that much without the burden of taxes. I'm sure someone of your obvious intellect and talent would be highly valued in that shangri la.
@MysterMr: Thanks for pointing out where the "government should be run like a business" crowd always draws the line on that philosophy. The fact is, successful businesss pay competitive wages (and benefits) in order to attract the best employees. Putting an arbitrary cap on compensation is a ridiculous, over simplified approach and does nothing to improve the quality of government.
Why wouldn't you sign this petition? Some of you want to say it won't help. Fine. But I guarentee it won't hurt and if it does make thing more transparent - as it should - all the better for us tax payers.
The bankruptcies of our city, state, and country are not the fault of persons who bargained with these entities and got an approved contract. Our financial woes are the fault of conservatives who lower taxes so that less money comes into state coffers, and then they blame the deficits on democrats. Republicans have no issue with governmental spending when it benefits them or their cronies, even if its deficit spending. Its only when the spending benefits those "unworthy individuals", like the shrinking middle class that they get angry. Why be upset at union members making a wage they can actually live on? Don't we all have a vested interest in helping all of our citizens live better? Why cut taxes on the rich or corporations, then shift that burden to the middle class? Shouldn't we be upset with them for getting a free ride on our backs?
And the point is?
This gives little Tark something to do or to build a base for the next time he runs for office, again, something, anything.
PTA, home owners association, etc...
enough
This will actually be a boon to unions. Typically private employers want the bargaining process closed becuase the public would be outraged by union busting tactics. Sure in the short term people are upset about the salaries of execs but the salaries of the rank and file are paltry.
Hopefully he will manage this better than he managed his Senatorial campaign.
This is a no-brainer. The only people who are against it are corrupt greedheads who want to be able to to profit or pull one over on the taxpayers.