By Patricia Ackerman

The new Nevada has arrived, and it is cause for celebration. Over the last nine years following and recovering from the great recession, the Nevada economy has diversified, adding tens of thousands of new jobs in 21st century industries including high-tech manufacturing, logistics and aerospace. At the same time, our state has been able to maintain its traditional industries such as gaming, mining and ranching.

While the old Nevada might have garnered images of smoke-filled rooms and insider deals, the hallmarks of the new Nevada will be diversity, transparency and accountability. These values are inevitable in the new Nevada, but our legislators must be proactive and pass a comprehensive ethics reform bill in the 2019 session.

In particular, any ethics reform bill must include provisions to modernize our campaign finance system. In very few states can a single donor give $5,000, but in Nevada you can. I propose that the Nevada campaign finance system mirror the federal system and limit donations to $2,700. Limiting large campaign donations would force elected officials to engage middle-class donors and empower more working Nevadans to share their perspective with candidates seeking financial support for their campaigns.

Additionally, any ethics reform bill should include provisions to limit donations from out-of-state corporations. Nevada companies are more likely to employ Nevadans than out-of-state corporations, and money spent locally tends to stay in the economy. We could be giving local businesses an edge and limit the influence of their out-of-state competitors on our local elections.

Transparency is a concept that few politicians and candidates ever publicly disagree with, but often times it plays second fiddle to other priorities in the sprint that is the biennial Nevada legislative session. With trust in government fading, now is the time to make transparency a priority. Other jurisdictions around the country compel elected officials and government executives to make their calendars, and therefore their meetings with constituents and lobbyists, public. Any ethics reform proposal must include similar transparency provisions.

Another transparency best practice is requiring “paid for by” disclosures on all campaign materials larger than a business card. Voters should know what groups are attempting to influence their elections so they are empowered to make informed decisions.

Finally, I firmly believe that voters should pick their politicians, and that politicians should not pick their voters. Other states remove the temptation for partisan gerrymandering by entirely taking redistricting power away from politicians and giving it to citizens through redistricting commissions. Nevada should implement a citizen-led independent redistricting commission in advance of the coming census.

Leadership in the Assembly and Senate should be compelled to pick a non-elected partisan to sit on the board, and the Governor would choose a voter that has been a registered Nevada non-partisan for at least ten years to chair the commission. The commission would then work to draw legislative and congressional lines following the Census. Ideas similar to this in other states have led to less partisan gerrymandering and more competitive legislative races. While these ideas don’t have a monopoly on expanding transparency and accountability, they will certainly empower working Nevadans to take a greater role in governance. The ideas I've articulated here came from Democrats, Republicans and nonpartisans. The new Nevada will demand it sooner or later, so let’s be proactive and do it next legislative cycle.

Patricia Ackerman is a small business owner, retired actor, and high altitude mountaineer who served the Long Beach mounted police for nine years and the Altadena Posse for two years before moving to Douglas County in 2002. She plans to run for the Nevada Assembly in District 39.