PVT FILE PHOTO Assemblyman Ed Goedhart Advertisement

Incumbent Nevada District 36 Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, plans to pursue some of the same water initiatives that failed in his first term if he's reelected to a second term in November.

A bill Goedhart introduced in the 2007 legislative session, which would have required the top administrators for a governmental agency, like the National Parks Service, to sign off on a protest of water right transfers, never made it out of the government affairs committee.

Goedhart said the committee chairwoman, Marilyn Kilpatrick, D-Las Vegas, was instructed not to bring the bill to a vote. He charged Las Vegas Democrats wanted to be able to continue seizing rural water rights.

"This time I'm going through the Senate. I'm going to get it through the Senate," Goedhart said. "Now it has to be voted on the floor. Did you know the Southern Nevada Water Authority has filed on tens of thousands of acre feet of water in northern Nye County?"

Goedhart said the Nevada Division of Water Resources hasn't enforced the doctrine of forfeiting water rights after five years of failing to prove beneficial use, against fellow government or quasi-government agencies. He said the SNWA has been sitting on Nye County water rights for 30 years.

Goedhart would also like to see a law permitting a local governing body to request the state water engineer suspend the forfeiture provision for a water rights holder whose rights are over the perennial water yield.

"Right now in Pahrump, I know people that are spending tens of thousands of dollars in power bills pumping water just to show beneficial use," Goedhart said. "This law just exacerbates the waste of a precious resource."

Goedhart said he isn't introducing the water rights bills as a personal favor to his employer, the Ponderosa Dairy, where he is currently a commodities broker. He said government agencies protested water rights of 12 different people in Amargosa Valley. The protests also threaten to hamper the alternative energy industry, he said.

"If you have these protests disallowing any movement of diversion, place of use or type of use, you've just killed a fledgling industry before it was able to be created. We're talking in Nye County about an opportunity to have over $1 billion in investment in renewable energy," he said.

The Democratic control of Congress and Sen. Harry Reid's position as Senate Majority Leader mean "in all likelihood Yucca Mountain is dead," Goedhart said.

That means Nye County will have to diversify its tax revenues and can't count on payments equal to taxes from the U.S. Department of Energy for the land value of Yucca Mountain, Goedhart added.

Goedhart has been an opponent of the Yucca Mountain project for 10 years, which puts him more in line with state government, but at a different stance than Nye County, which has had a policy of constructive engagement with DOE over the project.

A couple of other changes in state law Goedhart would like to pursue include allowing a nurse practitioner with over three years experience not to have to work with a collaborating physician to fill a need for medical care in rural Nevada counties of fewer than 100,000 people.

He also wants to allow solar power producers to use alternative fuel sources, like natural gas pipelines, when the sun isn't shining.

News reports have been critical of Gov. Jim Gibbons, who has requested budget cuts due to declining revenues.

Goedhart said it's not actually a budget cut. "It's a reduction in the rate of growth. That's what everyone fails to mention. We're still spending about 16 percent more this biennium than we did the last one," he said.

Some state officials argued in the last session the projections by the Nevada Economic Forum Indicator Group of a 21 percent increase in the budget were too optimistic, Goedhart said. The economy retracted and now the revenue increase was scaled back from 21 percent to 16 percent, he said.

The last session, Goedhart said he was able to see a companion bill passed tightening up protections against child predators; increasing the powers of the Nevada Ethics Commission; allowing impact fees to be used for extending infrastructure; and bringing a higher visibility to the need for Highway 160 improvements east of Mountain Springs Pass.

Goedhart felt it was useful being on the transportation and judiciary committees the last session. He'd like to be appointed to the commerce and labor committee next session, if elected, and would be willing to give up the judiciary committee post if necessary.

Goedhart predicts more requests by constituents of big government in the 2009 session, who want more from the taxpayer's wallet.

An official campaign kickoff has been scheduled for 7 p.m., May 3, at the Seibt Desert Retreat RV Resort, on Highway 160 and Leslie Street.