A broken process

A couple of news items this morning caught my eye and my ire. The first was that three initiatives circulated by the Las Vegas Sands and owner Sheldon Adelson were submitted to the County Registrar of Voters for verification yesterday. The second was that the Teacher’s Union reached a deal with three gaming companies to keep another initiative off the ballot but place an advisory question regarding an increase in the gaming tax.

I am not going to discuss the merits of any of the initiatives. I haven’t read them in their entirety and I’m sure they will be challenged in court. I cannot find fault with people using the means currently in place to ensure their interests are protected. I am going to discuss the process.

The initiative process is the wrong place to determine public policy. This needs to be done in the legislative branch of government. As the bill works through the committee and sub-committee process, it is vetted for potential pratfalls and loopholes. Areas of contention are addressed prior to a bill becoming law. All of this is skipped in the initiative process.

The Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act (I think that was the name) is a good example of why the process is flawed. Many states and counties had passed similar ordinances banning smoking in public indoor spaces. I would assume that similar attempts to pass one in Nevada were thwarted by the gaming lobby. So, in an effort to get something passed, the backers of the initiative specifically excluded the major casinos. Once passed, it was challenged and the criminal portion was thrown own, leaving the Health District to enforce the act – something they are not equipped to handle. So, the act is actually being interpreted differently in different parts of the state and you have these hokey efforts to meet the letter of the law, but not the spirit. Some restaurants closed their kitchens altogether others during off-peak hours. Some just flagrantly don’t enforce the act.

Many of these issues would have been avoided if we would have followed the “how a bill becomes a law” process we all learned in 5th grade. The language would have been crafted with court challenges in mind. The enforcement of the law would have been clear. And it would have been enforced consistently throughout the state. But the issue is that since the Legislative branch has done little, other than rubber stamp a budget, for the last 10 or so years it is no wonder that interested parties are reaching out to the initiative process.

The solution is to elect leaders who have the backbone to make tough decisions facing the state. Our elected officials need to act in our best interest, not those of the special interests. We, the citizens whom elect these individuals to serve us, need to keep an eye on our elected officials to make sure they are spending our tax dollars wisely and acting in our best interests.