Legislators run out of time, opening door for special session

By Anjeanette Damon, Andrew Doughman

Published Tuesday, June 4, 2013 | 2 a.m.

Updated Tuesday, June 4, 2013 | 4 a.m.

The final day of the Legislature ended in as hectic a manner as it began Monday.

With just an hour left before the midnight deadline lawmakers had yet to finish a measure to raise taxes for police officers in Clark County, hash out a standoff with Gov. Brian Sandoval over $2 million for Teach for America or take up a last-minute bill to rescue North Las Vegas from its financial woes.

When the clock struck midnight, some survived. Many didn’t. And Sandoval was left preparing to call for a special session in the middle of the night.

The special session proclamation arrived just before 4 a.m., directing legislators to convene at 4:30 a.m. and end at 8 a.m. to consider five bills.

Perhaps the most significant measure to die at midnight was Assembly Bill 496, which would have allowed the Clark County Commission to raise taxes to fund more police officers. That bill was first on Sandoval's list.

The governor also directed the Legislature to take up the measure that directed $2 million to the national nonprofit organization Teach for America. Recognizing that the bill would likely die in the Assembly, where Democrats strongly oppose the measure, Sandoval recommended instead that the money be directed to the Millennium Scholarship Fund.

Also on the proclamation is a bill to changing the oversight of the state's Charter Schools account, a bill on class-size reduction policy and another bill on tax abatements for economic development.

"The key bill is the More Cops bill," Sandoval's chief of staff Gerald Gardner said. "The second is the TFA bill."

Indeed, it was a the More Cops bill that set off a mad, last-minute scurry in the final seconds before the midnight close to the 2013 regular legislative session.

The Assembly had amended the bill earlier in the evening and the differences between the two houses couldn’t be resolved despite a frantic attempt to do so.

Senators met with members of the Assembly to both sign off on a conference committee report resolving the differences, but staff said the report wasn’t ready. With just 10 minutes left, legislators rushed to an office while staff printed the report.

“If I have to run the report, I’ll run it to you,” said Assemblyman James Healey, D-Las Vegas, to his colleagues in the Assembly. “I have the longest legs.”

Healey grabbed the report and sprinted down the halls of the Legislature, shouting to the legislative security guards: “Open that door! Open that door!”

The Assembly was reading the amendment as the clock hit midnight.

Meanwhile, senators madly rushed to pass final legislation. With one minute to go, Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson started to shout: “Where is the cop tax? Where’s the cop tax!”

Lobbyists ran furiously through the hallways while the Assembly worked to process the final changes.

The secretary in the Senate, however, had already begun the countdown: “20 seconds. 10 seconds. It’s midnight.”

Although both houses adjourned sine die, legislative leaders gathered to discuss the possibility of exercising for the first time the Legislature’s new power to call a special session.

“There may be a special session. We will see. I wouldn’t go home yet,” Roberson said.

Lobbyists packed the halls between the Senate and Assembly, speculating whether the police bill had passed before midnight.

“I guess it depends on what clock you’re looking at,” said Chuck Callaway, an officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Such was the end to the 2013 session.

When the dust settled on the last-minute hustle, a final tally of what lived and died in the final moments emerged:

• A measure creating an interim committee to study implementing a “commerce tax” died.

• A bill to connect the gas tax to the inflation rate in Clark County to generate more revenue for road projects passed.

• A policy bill setting the state’s priorities on class-size reduction died.

• A bill to help rescue North Las Vegas from its financial woes appears to have survived.

• A bill that would have directed $2 million on Teach for America to recruit teachers for at-risk schools died.

Lawmakers weren’t exactly happy about the results, but appeared resigned to the process.

Indeed, the end mirrored the haphazard nature of the day’s beginning, when a malfunctioning reader board hindered passage of a medical marijuana bill and the Assembly nearly ran afoul of the constitution by voting on a budget bill before they passed the education spending measure.

“I brought three packs of cigarettes today,” Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, said in the early hours of the final day. “And I think I know why.”