‘Core’ group holds budget meeting behind closed doors

Legislative leadership held their first meeting of the so-called “core group” Tuesday night — an unannounced session behind closed doors.

The core group includes only top leadership of the two houses and two parties who meet quietly in an attempt to find compromise positions on different issues — usually centering on taxes and the budget.

They met Tuesday night after 7 p.m. in Ways and Means chairwoman Maggie Carlton’s small conference room on the third floor.

Carlton brusquely informed the press who showed up for the meeting that it was a private meeting in her office and said to get out. Told that, since it wasn’t a caucus — both houses and both parties attending — and therefore should be open, she said simply “out.”

The session was called by Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, who met first with her fiscal staff economists and Brenda Erdoes from Legislative Counsel.