Friday, May 23, 2003 | 6:43 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION
May 25, 2003
CARSON CITY -- As the Legislature presses toward its scheduled adjournment June 2, most of the key issues it took up at the beginning of the session remain to be resolved.
Still on the agenda is the great question of the last l8 months: how to overcome a projected billion-dollar deficit in a state budget already pared to the bone. The Legislature has yet to agree to raise taxes but is getting closer to a decision to do so.
Other key issues still in the pipeline and expected to produce legislation are medical malpractice, broadband communications, the death penalty, problem gambling, work cards and consumer protections.
Bills on these issues were given exemptions to miss the deadlines, now past, to pass through the Senate and the Assembly. That has left more time -- though not much more -- to pass new legislation.
Following is a look at the remaining key issues and the legislative action on each.
TAXES
The tax and budget debates reached a crescendo as negotiators from both parties discussed the $230 million difference between the Senate and the Assembly's budget plans.
The tax debate changed rapidly last week, as both parties tried to shore up support for their plans.
Gov. Kenny Guinn met with fellow Republicans to push his proposals. Any new tax needs a two-thirds majority to pass the Legislature. As of late last week, there were different budget and tax numbers.
The Senate Finance Committee said it needs $830 million to close the budget. Assembly Democrats put the number at $1.06 billion.
Republicans are loath to go much higher than the Senate committee's figure.
Still, committees were meeting over the last 48 hours and the debate was expected to pick up after Friday's midnight deadline for bills to pass the second chamber.
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
When lawmakers arrived in Carson City in February, many remarked how it seemed as though they had never left.
The Legislature met in a special session in August to address the medical malpractice crisis and passed a bill that was an attempt to cap skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance premiums.
Many lawmakers left the special session saying there might be ways to "tweak" the measure. The law put a cap on jury awards in medical malpractice trials, but left a few exceptions.
Doctor-advocacy group Keep Our Doctors in Nevada brought an initiative petition for the Legislature's consideration that voters will consider next year at the polls. The petition -- calling for a $350,000 cap on jury awards without exceptions, unlike the law passed last summer -- was added to a malpractice bill in the Senate.
Doctors say the current law has too many exemptions and doesn't do enough to reduce insurance premiums.
The Assembly reacted to the Senate's move in the exact opposite way -- amending the bill to give voters an alternate next November.
The alternative will ask voters whether they want to keep the existing state law created in the special session -- a $350,000 cap giving a judge the ability to waive the limit. The question will also allow the cap to rise to $500,000 for cases involving those who don't earn wages -- such as children, seniors and home makers.
The Assembly has yet to vote on the new amendment to Senate Bill 97 -- the malpractice measure.
Even as the politics of tort reform continues, several efforts to rein in insurance companies have been approved.
Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus and Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, both D-Las Vegas, have won approval for efforts to prohibit insurance companies from pulling out of the medical malpractice market or inappropriately spiking malpractice premiums.
"This is the one piece of the puzzle that was left after the special session," Titus said.
BROADBAND
Senate Bill 400 would prohibit the Public Utilities Commission from regulating broadband -- the next generation of communications.
Broadband is to the future use of telecommunications as cable once was to those with rabbit ears atop their grainy television sets. Broadband is a high-speed digital line that can provide Internet, TV and phone service.
The Legislature is debating whether the PUC should regulate it and how to create a more competitive market for the service.
The complexity of broadband issues required a 30-minute primer on technical terms even before the first witnesses exchanged words during hearings on the bill.
SB400 was pushed by Sprint and SBC, companies that want to compete in the broadband market dominated by former monopolies such as AT&T. The state consumer advocate stepped into the middle of the debate, and a consumer group fronting for AT&T ran television and newspaper ads urging the death of SB400.
But it wasn't just two Goliaths fighting over business practices. Cox Communications, XO Communications, Worldcom and a host of others also staked claims in the bill.
Lawmakers are trying to find a balance between government regulation and a competitive market. An agreement reached late last week will be presented during a hearing Monday before the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee.
The PUC will not regulate broadband, but it will still have oversight over access to phone networks and will have the power to investigate complaints about irregular pricing.
The newcomers get a chance to compete and the current broadband providers get some sense of market stability with the understanding of where the market is. Consumers will get a choice of providers.
"They (consumers) want choice," Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee Chairman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, said. "This will give them that in the scope, range and price of services they will be choosing for their homes."
DEATH PENALTY
After an intense study of capital punishment in 2002, lawmakers looked at measures prohibiting the execution of the mentally retarded and those under 17 and prohibiting the sentencing by judges, not juries, of criminals to death.
What will likely emerge from the 2003 Legislature are a few steps toward what Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, calls "a more civil society."
Assembly Bill 15, which bars execution of the mentally retarded, has already been signed by the governor. Another measure, setting up a procedure for those sentenced to death to obtain DNA samples related to their case, is also on its way to the governor.
Yet another measure, increasing compensation for public defenders and ordering the collection of capital case statistics, also passed.
Still, it has become clear in the Republican-controlled Senate that many see the reforms as a means of chipping away at what some believe is the only source of closure for victims of crime.
Lawmakers struggled with how to eliminate Nevada's system of having a three-judge panel decide sentencing of deadlocked juries and of defendants who plead guilty. A U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibits that.
A modified version of the bill is still moving through the Legislature.
A measure that prohibited the execution of those who are under 18 at the time of their crime will not emerge this session.
Still, those attempting to abolish the death penalty believe that more progress was made in 2003 than in any other legislature session.
"It just underscores to me how much good-faith work the interim committee did to study the issues," said James Jackson, a Nevada Attorneys for Criminal Justice lobbyist.
PROBLEM GAMBLING
The Legislature is still looking at two bills that would deal with problem gambling. The future of the first effort to publicly fund problem gambling treatment in the state was at best uncertain, supporters say. Another bill that would require state certification for problem gambling counselors -- without asking the state for money -- was further along.
SB349 would allocate $250,000 to the state Department of Human Resources to grant to organizations that treat problem gamblers. Nevada has for years been criticized by problem gambling treatment advocates for being among the few states nationwide that do not provide some form of government-funded help for addicted gamblers.
But with the state's looming budget crisis and an unresolved tax plan to raise needed revenue, the bill may be doomed for the second legislative session in a row, said Carol O'Hare, executive director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, which receives funding from the casino industry.
SB349 hasn't made it out of the Senate Finance Committee, where it was introduced in March.
"It's not surprising for the bill to be sitting there (in committee) in light of the tax issues," O'Hare said.
The most significant aspect of the bill is mandating the creation of a fund, she said. That fund could start out with less money or could be funded from various sources, she said.
SB349 also provided for a separate state board to certify problem gambling counselors, a move pushed by the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling. With the state's budget woes, it soon became clear that the state wouldn't approve new certification boards.
That led to a companion bill, SB351, that would add gambling addiction counseling certification to the state Board of Examiners for Drug and Alcohol Abuse Counselors. The bill would add two gambling experts to the board using money generated by certification fees.
SB351 was approved last month by the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee and passed out of the Assembly Judiciary committee last week. It awaits a vote by the full Assembly.
Both bills are supported by the Nevada Resort Association, the chief lobbying group for Nevada casinos. Casino regulators have not taken a position on the legislation.
WORK CARDS
An omnibus gaming bill, SB432, is expected to be signed by the governor this week. The Assembly approved the bill Wednesday after it had passed the Senate. The Assembly added some minor changes at the Gaming Control Board's suggestion and it faces another vote in the Senate before it goes to the governor.
The most significant aspect of the bill is the authorization of a statewide registration system for casino employees that will no longer require workers to obtain work cards processed by local law enforcement agencies.
Instead, the system would require casinos to supply work registration information to employees, who would be responsible for getting fingerprinted by local law enforcement agencies. The information would be forwarded by the casinos to the Gaming Control Board. The board would pass it on to a state repository for a criminal background check, which would then forward it to the FBI for another check.
CONSUMER BILLS
The most visible consumer protection legislation -- a registry limiting telemarketing calls -- is still alive and will be hashed out over the next week in a conference committee.
Buckley has proposed several consumer protection measures this session and made several other similar issues part of the Democrats' priorities for early passage.
Among the measures still technically alive is one to prohibit so-called credit scoring -- a practice by which insurers use a driver's credit report in figuring that person's auto insurance rates.
Buckley's "rebuilt wreck" bill, to require disclosure that a vehicle was previously in an accident, is proceeding.
Democrats said they believe the 2003 session will be remembered for the steps lawmakers took to protect the consumer even amid large tax increases.
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