Sen. Bernice Mathews - protesting the fact not one Northern Nevada Democrat was on the nominee list - moved Monday to delay appointing lawmakers to the newly-created tax study committee.
"I feel we need a voice from the north on the Democratic side," said Mathews, D-Sparks.
"You would be concerned if we were doing the reverse down there," she told Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, during the Interim Finance Committee meeting held on teleconference in Las Vegas and the capital.
Horsford requested a recess, during which Mathews disappeared to her office for a phone conversation with Horsford and other members of leadership in the south.
When she emerged nearly 30 minutes later, the tax study committee had expanded from 12 lawmakers to 16.
In addition to putting Mathews and Sparks Assemblyman Bernie Anderson on the panel, Horsford and his Assembly counterparts agreed to add two more Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, recommended Dean Rhoads of Tuscarora to represent rural areas. Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, was not in attendance and will make her final addition to the committee later.
The study is supposed to produce recommendations for the 2011 Legislature on how to overhaul Nevada's revenue generating system.
Raggio raised the issue of how the study will be funded. Gov. Jim Gibbons vetoed the legislation containing money for the project.
He was advised that a request for money will be submitted by the Legislative Commission to the Board of Examiners in September.