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Published January 26, 2017
This is a partial transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," June 17, 2005, that was edited for clarity.
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Strip clubs tipping cab drivers to steer patrons their way? It is a very common practice in Las Vegas, and for cabbies, it is a way to make a lot of extra cash. But is it right? The Nevada state legislature does not think so. It passed a bill to ban what it considered kickbacks. My next guest, choosing to side with the cab drivers on this one, vetoed that bill. On the phone with us now from Carson City, Nevada is the state's governor, Kenny Guinn. Governor, why did you veto this?
GOV. KENNY GUINN, R-NEV.: Hi, Neil. Well, first of all, Neil, it really is not a bill that was adopted specifically for that area. It was an amendment that was put on without any discussion — no public discussion whatsoever. It was kind of done at the dark of the night, rather than the light of the day, at the very end of a session, and it was inserted, just a few lines into a very important bill that was moving through the legislative process in the last closing days or so.
CAVUTO: What was your problem with it, Governor? Now, as I understand it, cabbies would be allowed to steer traffic to some of these strip clubs, right?
GUINN: Well, no. We already have a regulation, an extensive one, in the Taxicab Authority, which the state regulates, and that is that you cannot — and it's been this way for quite some time — you cannot divert people when they say I want to go to a certain place, you cannot say, "Well, I'll take you to a better place, or I'll take you someplace where they'll tip me." That's already on the books.
The second thing, Neil, is that in the county and the city, where this is taking place — in Las Vegas, Clark County area — the local people, the county and the cities have already had an ordinance for the last 20 years, and they're ones that regulate these people; they give them their license. And the law said that if you are tipping and you have a license for liquor or entertainment or any liquor or any food license, then you would not be able to do this. And this just takes in also the local eateries, like good places to go in a neighborhood, that kind of a thing. So and it only took place in one area of the state, just in Clark County. And it didn't do anything with the northern part of the state or any other section.
CAVUTO: So let me understand, Governor, if I have it right. In Las Vegas now, for example, if a cabbie is kind of being wooed by a strip club or something like that to get clients to come visit that strip club, is it outlawed or not?
GUINN: Well, it should be. And there is a law on the books, and, in fact, just before this bill came out and before we started talking about vetoing it, the county and the city had already sent to all of the strip clubs a notice that they should not be participating in this kind of a process.
CAVUTO: But you don't, Governor, just so I can be clear here, you don't want to say that that should be forbidden, that they're free to do, and what their passengers in the car want to do?
GUINN: Absolutely.
CAVUTO: Yes, that I understand.
GUINN: Yes. They have that right of decision, and it should be regulated at the local level, because first of all, they put it into a bill into an area that's not even regulated. They put it into a bill that was going under an entirely different area than the Taxicab Authority, which has regulations over all the taxi cabs.
CAVUTO: All righty.
GUINN: So it was not discussed at all, and I don't think any good legislation could come out of something that where you have no hearing whatsoever, just goes into a conference committee, in the last few hours of any legislative session.
CAVUTO: I understand, Governor. Hence you rejected it. Governor Kenny Guinn, thank you very much.
GUINN: Thank you very much, Neil.
CAVUTO: Appreciate it.
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