Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

What’s still percolating this legislative session

Legislature Opens

Lance Iversen / AP

Spectators look down on the Nevada Assembly on the opening day of the legislative session, Monday, Feb. 6, 2017 in Carson City.

Nevada’s legislative session is entering its final days as lawmakers consider a narrowed field of bills and take on more definitive budget talks.

Two key deadlines have killed bills dealing with fish pedicures, primaries and a slew of other issues. Bills exempted from deadlines range in subject matter from alternative energy to education savings accounts. Gov. Brian Sandoval has proposed funding for ESAs, but the bill creating an account for the program has yet to have a hearing.

Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford said bills are moving at a good pace, despite only eight making it to the governor so far, compared with 24 at the same time last session. “We said on Day One that this would be a deliberative, thoughtful legislative session,” the Democratic leader said. “We’re living up to that.”

Assembly Minority Leader Paul Anderson said there are a number of Republican bills making headway.

“They’re not big industry bills,” Anderson said, “but we’ve got some good Republican policies — part of our priorities — that are moving forward.”

Anderson is signed onto Assembly Bill 469, a bipartisan measure that deals with reorganizing large school districts with more than 100,000 students, such as the Clark County School District. The Legislature OK’d the bill and sent it to Sandoval’s desk for his signature.

Lawmakers have had a few late nights as they’ve considered lengthier agendas and taken steps to keep bills alive. They can call special sessions to get through any lingering priorities, but the 120th and final day of the session is June 5. Here is a sampling of what they’re still mulling in Carson City.

Budget

Discussions on the budget will head into a sprint toward the end of the session, spurred by the release of a revenue forecast prepared by the state’s Economic Forum.

Lawmakers use this official final revenue estimate, due May 1, to make plans to balance two years of spending with estimated revenues for the state. Gov. Sandoval’s budget recommendations were based on the forum’s December estimates.

Republican Assemblymen Paul Anderson said in early April that the budget process would go really quickly from there, with talks starting before the session began. He said bills could be eliminated based on whether the state could afford them.

Bills that would cost the state include ESA funding and a measure enabling voters to decide whether feminine hygiene products should be exempted from sales tax.

Voter fraud

Lawmakers have been moving through bills against the backdrop of Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske’s recent announcement that three people illegally registered and voted in Clark County in the last election. Cegavske launched an investigation a week prior, saying the Department of Motor Vehicles was responsible for the suspected fraud because of overbroad interpretation of state law.

Ford and Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson said they wanted more information from the Secretary of State’s office before they would consider taking action.

“I think it’s unclear, and we’re dependent on our colleagues and certainly our constitutional officers to provide that information. We want to address it if it is a problem,” Frierson said, adding that this is a topic that rises to the level of calling a hearing.

Assembly Republican leaders say they hope the investigation’s final results will help with improvements to the voting system. Two bills backed by Republicans would have required identification at the polls but died without getting any hearings this session.

“We will be carefully watching this unfolding investigation to look for ways we can work with the Secretary of State’s office to streamline their communications with any state agencies responsible, in any way, for voter registration,” said Republican Assemblymen Anderson, James Oscarson and Jim Wheeler in a joint statement.

Bills beyond deadline

From funding for education savings accounts to planning for possible transportation projects, lawmakers have taken deadline pressure off of certain measures.

Anderson said some of these measures weren’t quite “soup” yet, and needed more work before they could go forward.

Senate Bill 506 would create an account in the State General Fund to carry out the ESA program, among other provisions. It has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee, and Anderson said this keeps it alive until the last day of the session.

“I think the ESA discussion’s obviously going to go on until the very last moments of the session,” Anderson said of the contentious issue known as school choice, which Democrats have fiercely opposed.

The bill’s deadline exemption became effective April 12, and as of April 24, the measure hadn’t come up before lawmakers again.

Senate Bill 149 provides a framework for communities to pursue large-scale transportation projects, such as a light rail system designed for Las Vegas. The bill has moved beyond committee and floor deadlines with bipartisan support, and its sponsor, Sen. Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, says he’s confident it will come up for a hearing in the Assembly’s Committee on Transportation.

Manendo previously said the legislation would give communities and regional transportation groups more options in planning, funding and constructing these projects.

“We know that there is definitely a need for it,” Manendo said. “People are asking for this — to me it’s just a win-win.”

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