The state will be short $5 billion to $6 billion over the next 10 years to meet its highway construction and maintenance needs.
And state lawmakers are wondering whether Gov. Jim Gibbons will back new taxes to take care of those needs.
Susan Martinovich, director of the state Transportation Department, outlined the future needs to a legislative subcommittee on transportation meeting in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers wanted to know whether Gibbons is adhering to his policy of no new taxes before they develop any suggested funding sources.
Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, asked whether the governor would be receptive to any increased revenue. He said he did not want to waste the time of legislative staff developing proposed revenue sources if Gibbons is not going to agree.
The governor, he said, should provide “guidance to the subcommittee.”
Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said the panel should understand Gibbons’ thinking before it makes recommendations so it won’t simply be “spinning our wheels.”
And Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, who heads the subcommittee, suggested the 2009 Legislature, if it sees the need for more money, might have to find ways to raise it over Gibbons’ objections. He said he hopes a permanent source of money can be found for highway construction.
Martinovich told the subcommittee she would report back later.
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A man convicted of murder in Las Vegas is going to get a new trial because of an error by a District Court judge who has since become a member of the Nevada Supreme Court.
A three-member panel of the court overturned the conviction of Carl J. Henry, who admitted he killed Craig Haupt with a crowbar in July 2006.
According to legal briefs, both men were under the influence of drugs when they got into a fight after Haupt criticized Henry’s wife. After Haupt struck Henry a glancing blow with a golf club, Henry retaliated by hitting Haupt with the crowbar.
Afterward, Henry left Haupt’s apartment but returned to steal some items, including prescription drugs.
The Supreme Court said then-District Judge Nancy Saitta gave the jury a wrong instruction that even though the robbery took place after the killing, it could support a felony murder conviction. The state’s high court has ruled robbery does not support a felony murder conviction when the defendant formed the intent to rob the victim only after killing him.
Saitta, who was elected to the Supreme Court in 2006 and took office in 2007, rejected the defense’s proposed jury instruction that the robbery was an afterthought to the killing and could not support a felony murder conviction. The verdict forms ultimately given to the jury, the three-judge panel said, did not differentiate between felony murder and first-degree murder.
As a result, there was no way to determine whether the jury would have convicted Henry of first-degree murder if properly instructed, the court said.
Saitta sentenced Henry to consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole plus 35 to 156 months for robbery. The Supreme Court upheld the robbery conviction.
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