Governor sets veto record

Gov. Jim Gibbons has set a record for vetoes, rejecting 31 bills so far during the 2009 legislative session and breaking a record of 30 vetoes set shortly after Nevada became a state in 1864.

The previous record for most vetoes in a session was set by then-Gov. H.G. Blasdel in a session that began in late 1864 and ended in early 1865, according to Legislative Counsel Bureau records.

By Wednesday, with the 2009 session drawing to a close, Gibbons had vetoed 11 bills. On Thursday, the conservative Republican used his signature stamp to reject 20 more, including SB429, a $781 million tax increase plan, and AB562, a $6.8 billion state budget bill.

Gibbons also rejected SB431, another key budget measure which spells out how most non-state general fund money, about $12 billion, mainly in federal dollars, will be spent

Besides various tax and budget measures passed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature and vetoed by Gibbons, he also rejected AB446, to require state agencies to establish "benchmarks" to measure their success and efficiency over time, and publish their results on a Web site.

Gibbons also rejected AB307, a bill to let officials around Nevada publish an annual list of property taxpayers and their property values on an Internet Web site rather than in local newspapers. The measure would have cost newspapers in the state a lucrative revenue source.

Also vetoed was AB493, a plan to track investments by the state Public Employees' Retirement System into Iran's oil-energy industry.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, pushed for AB493 by noting federal objections to official Iran behavior, including the country's support for international terrorism, efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and a dismal human rights record.