Barbara Buckley

In a sweeping ruling handed down Friday by the Nevada Supreme Court, 21 elected officials in the state have been ruled ineligible to run for re-election because of term limits. In a separate ruling, 13 others, including the state Assembly speaker and state Senate majority leader, were ruled eligible to run for re-election.

Nevada votes approved term limits in 1996. Friday's ruling examined when exactly they kicked in for local officials and state lawmakers.

There's still no news yet on the Nevada Supreme Court deliberations that could kick Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas), and dozens of other elected officials off the ballot.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas).LAS VEGAS - In a bitingly critical response to his televised address Thursday, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas) portrayed Gov. Jim Gibbons as indecisive and uncooperative and suggested that any solution to the state's budget crisis will be reached by the legislature without the governor's help.

Buckley began her speech by praising Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio (R-Reno) whom she credited for working with her on a plan to meet a budget shortfall she estimated at more than $250 million.

"[Raggio] is an honest and dedicated public servant," said Buckley. "I want to publicly thank him for working in a bipartisan manner to reach a solution to our short-term problem."

"I cannot say the same for our governor," she added.

LAS VEGAS - Unsurprisingly, the Interim Finance Committee adjourned today without any great steps taken toward resolving Nevada's current budget crisis.  Balancing the state's budget, which the Economic Forum last week projected was running a $250 million deficit, will now be the topic of a special session of the state legislature to convene tomorrow.

Following the governor's original call for a special session earlier in June, Democratic legislative leaders, including Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas) and Senate Minority Leader Steven Horsford (D-Las Vegas) disputed the need for a special session and argued the shortfall could be dealt with through the IFC process.

Those arguments were silenced by the forum's projection and instead of attempting a stop-gap fix of the current shortfall, the IFC approved only minor, previously decided upon cuts.

So Sunday evening roles around and I sit down to watch Gov. Jim Gibbons and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley give their dueling live television addresses regarding the Nevada's budget crisis. Instead of watching the governor bumble for 10 minutes with a retort by Buckley, my screen was filled with promises that I could buy a home for $187.24 with no monthly payments.

The Economic Forum, left, meets in Carson City Friday.CARSON CITY - At the request of Gov. Jim Gibbons, the Economic Forum is meeting today to come up with a projection for the state's budget shortfall.  The forum is examining projections on a dozen different revenue sources from the legislative counsel bureau, the budget division and the various governmental agencies that oversee revenue collection.

Since Gibbons' call for a special session of the legislature last week, key legislators and the governor's office have remained far apart on estimates of just how much in spending cuts or increased revenue will be necessary to make the state solvent.  The governor's budget office predicts a shortfall of approximately $240 million, while the LCB expects closer to $100 million.

Key Democratic legislators, including Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley and Senate Minority Leader Steven Horsford, have said that a special session of the legislature is unnecessary, that their estimate of the budget shortfall can be addressed through the Interim Finance Committee process.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas).LAS VEGAS - On her way into a rush meeting with the Democratic legislative caucus, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas) predicted Wednesday that Democratic legislators would produce their own plan to meet Nevada's budget shortfall and took issue with Gov. Jim Gibbons' call for a special session to address the problem.

"It's very odd to run a special session this way," said Buckley.  "Usually a governor identifies a problem, identifies a solution, works with legislative leaders on developing a consensus for that solution and then, if legislative action is required, calls a special session.

"To have done none of that?  I've never seen that happen before."

Gov. Jim Gibbons.LAS VEGAS - In the hectic scramble before the 25th Special Session of the Nevada state legislature convenes next week, Gov. Jim Gibbons' office is giving legislators a green light to come up with their own proposals to fix the state's budget shortfall.

"Anything that's a viable option, [legislators] will be able to consider," said Gibbons press secretary Ben Kieckhefer Wednesday. "If there's something that we weren't able to encapsulate for some reason in our proclamation or in the agenda we set forth, we'd be willing to amend it so it could be considered."

Control of the agenda is one of the strongest tools Gibbons holds to either push his own plan to fix the shortfall or support efforts by Republican allies. By sticking to his pledge that "no options are off the table," Gibbons could be inviting a drawn-out, acrimonious special session.

From left:Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas), state Sen. Bob Beers (R-Las Vegas), state Sen. Joe Heck (R-Henderson).LAS VEGAS - Perhaps the biggest irony of Gov. Jim Gibbons' call for a special session of the legislature June 23 is that he could potentially be providing a golden opportunity for the politician who could defeat him in 2010.

Three state legislators, Assembly Speaker Barbara (D-Las Vegas) and state Sens. Joe Heck (R-Henderson) and Bob Beers (R-Las Vegas), are rumored to be interested in Gibbons' job, and any one of them could use the session to strike a first blow in an eventual campaign against him.

Taking into account his "no solutions are off the table" pledge and short of Gibbons shooting the moon politically, here is what we can expect to see next week from the looming gubernatorial contest.

Assemblyman David Bobzien (D-Reno).LAS VEGAS - While some are reluctant to characterize Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons' motives behind calling a special session of the Nevada legislature Friday, some Democratic legislators believe Gibbons is only calling it to distract media attention from bad publicity surrounding his divorce.

Gibbons' divorce from first lady Dawn Gibbons has made national press recently with stories of an alleged mistress and Gibbons' text messages to her filling headlines.  Gibbons apologized Wednesday for using a state-owned cell phone to send more than 860 text messages in one month last year to the alleged mistress.