Lawmakers protest governor's control of stimulus

The fight over whether Gov. Jim Gibbons has unilateral control over spending of stimulus money erupted in the Interim Finance Committee Thursday as Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, accused the administration of violating the law.

Coffin made it clear he believes the governor has no legal right to control stimulus funding or any other money without running it past lawmakers first.

But former Assemblyman Lynn Hettrick of Gardnerville, now deputy chief of staff to Gibbons, strongly objected.

"To accuse the executive branch of breaching statute on the record is absolutely inexcusable," he said. "If you believe that, you should file a lawsuit."

Then Hettrick threatened to cut contact with lawmakers, saying, "We are not going to participate in meetings where the executive branch is accused of violating state law."

Coffin, not backing off, said he hoped "nobody's feelings got hurt."

"It would be too bad if somebody's feelings got hurt because we spoke the truth," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, both D-Las Vegas, didn't go as far as Coffin. But they made it clear they don't appreciate the governor's declaring he has emergency power to approve American Recovery and Reinvestment Act spending without legislative review.

"Some of these items were emergencies and some weren't for the protection of property and nothing would have been lost if we waited three weeks," Buckley told Hettrick. "We should scrutinize every dollar of ARRA money."

"When you can, bring it to IFC. If you do that, I think the state will operate better," she said.

The battle started in the August IFC meeting when lawmakers rewrote the governor's request to put a stimulus czar and assistant in his office. Instead, they put those positions in the controller's office.

Citing a state law allowing him to go around IFC in an emergency to protect life and property, Gibbons created the positions himself and declared his administration unilaterally in charge of all $2.2 billion in stimulus money coming to Nevada.