Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Nevada lawmakers want ability to call special sessions

The branches of Nevada’s government might be separate. But the Nevada Constitution doesn’t say they have to be equal.

Some lawmakers see the Legislature’s relevance slipping. Nevada remains one of four states nationwide to have a session only once every two years. And term limits, which are now fully in effect, have taken out some of the most savvy legislators.

To reverse the slide is Question 1, the only statewide ballot question this year. The proposed constitutional change would allow the Legislature to call itself into special session, if two-thirds of lawmakers in both the Assembly and Senate sign a petition.

“It’s necessary to restore the balance of power between the governor and Legislature,” said Assemblyman Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, who chaired the Assembly Legislative Operations and Election Committee in 2011.

Opponents though, worry that it could be abused by lawmakers.

Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, opposes the question.

The state constitution “was crafted to protect the separation of powers and he supports that important constitutional principle,” said his spokeswoman, Mary Sarah-Kinner.

Click to enlarge photo

Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, yawns as a Senate floor session goes late into the night at the Legislature in Carson City on Wednesday, May 20, 2009.

Currently, the Legislature has 120 days every two years to pass the state’s budget, consider taxes, change existing laws and produce new ones. Outside of that time, only the governor can call lawmakers back to Carson City.

The other states that have biennial legislatures are Texas, Montana and North Dakota.

Ballot Question 1 was passed by the Legislature in 2009, with broad bipartisan support. In 2011, it passed a second time with Democratic support over unanimous Republican opposition.

Segerblom said lawmakers would “very seldom, if ever” call themselves into session.

Nevertheless, having that ability would serve as an important check on the governor, he said.

Lawmakers would have to sign a formal petition spelling out the agenda of the special session, which couldn’t last more than 20 days.

Other lawmakers disagreed.

“The constitution as written has served us well for 150 years,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, who voted against the resolution in 2009 and 2011.

He worries about the effect of term limits on the legislative process. But, he said, “the Legislature still has a voice in the process.”

In 2009, lawmakers asserted that voice when, for the first time, they overrode a governor’s veto of a budget and replaced it with their own.

McGinness said Question 1 could be a temptation for lawmakers to abuse their power.

“Toward the end of the session, when everyone is running on fumes, some lawmakers could become reactionary,” McGinness said. “They could try this to run around the governor.”

Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, voted in favor of the measure in 2009 and 2011. But, he noted, a similar question passed by the Legislature in 2003 and 2005 was narrowly rejected by voters in 2006. Then, as this year, there was virtually no public campaign surrounding the question.

Parks noted that “if a governor were to be accused of malfeasance, there currently is no way to take steps to remove him or her.”

In fact, the tumultuous term of Gov. Jim Gibbons is what prodded lawmakers to start the process of putting Question 1 on the ballot — an effort that garnered broad bipartisan support, including from the late Sen. Bill Raggio and term-limited Sen. Randolph Townsend.

In 2011, with Sandoval in office, it narrowly passed out of the Legislature along partisan lines — all the Republican lawmakers voted against it.

Segerblom, the advocate, said lawmakers wouldn’t call themselves into session willy-nilly. For most citizen-lawmakers, taking time off work to serve in the Legislature is not taken lightly. “It would take two-thirds to call ourselves into session,” he said. “No one wants to go to Carson City. No one likes it up there. It would only happen if there was bipartisan support for some special need.”

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