Brian Sandoval

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford has requested emergency legislation to conduct a performance audit of the revenue collection functions of the Department of Taxation following questions last week about the thoroughness of the agency’s review of mining tax payments.

(Updated at 2:12 p.m. on March 14, 2011 to include new comments from Sandoval Administration)
CARSON CITY – Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford has requested emergency legislation to conduct a performance audit of the revenue collection functions of the Department of Taxation following questions last week about the thoroughness of the agency’s review of mining tax payments.

CARSON CITY – Freshman Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, watched as one of his first bills was introduced on the floor of the Assembly Tuesday.
Hansen’s bill would establish a state grants coordinator to help Nevada apply for and win more federal grants.
A few hours later, Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, stood at a lectern flanked by the American flag and the flag of the State of Nevada, and told a gathering of reporters about his bill.

CARSON CITY – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a first-of-its-kind economic study today identifying stalled energy projects – including 10 in Nevada – that are costing billions of dollars in lost gross domestic product.
The study says the delays are costing the state’s economy $66.9 billion in GDP and that 86,700 jobs a year could be created in Nevada during the construction phase of the projects.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Democratic legislative leaders today questioned a comment from the Sandoval administration that two job creation bills they are pursuing will be vetoed for creating a hole in the governor’s recommended state general fund budget.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval is seeking significant changes to Nevada’s public employee pension plan in the 2011 legislative session to reduce the ongoing and long-term financial cost of the benefit to the state and taxpayers.
But if he wants fundamental change, he might look to the state university system’s retirement plan for faculty.

RENO – When the bottom fell out of the construction industry, some lucky ones kept working.
CC Myers, a California company, has benefited from a portion of a $393 million contract to extend Interstate 580 between Reno and Carson City. They are building the 120-foot-tall bridge spanning Galena Creek.
Work there has continued apace as vehicles zooming through the valley below have increasingly carried unemployed Nevadans.

CARSON CITY – Teachers could forfeit portions of their salaries awarded for obtaining masters of doctorate degrees under a new proposal.
In what could amount to a pay cut, Gov. Brian Sandoval has proposed eliminating that type of compensation in favor of $20 million in performance pay.

CARSON CITY – The governor has proposed taking funds school districts are using for emergency repairs to help balance the state budget.
School districts have said this would leave them with little money to fix broken boilers and leaky roofs or perform other emergency repairs.
“We don’t have any money set aside right now to cover those expenses if the governor’s proposal moves forward,” said Craig Hulse from the Washoe County School District before a Senate committee reviewing the governor’s proposal.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada state Sen. Joe Hardy today introduced a bill to require the transportation department to develop a privately-financed toll road as a bypass around Boulder City.

CARSON CITY – A Republican state senator has proposed his own idea for job creation: A break on the modified business tax for new employees hired by employers after July 1, 2011.
Sen. James Settelmeyer, R-Gardnerville, said Senate Bill 199 would exempt new employees hired by Nevada businesses from the tax as an incentive to add workers to their payrolls. Co-sponsors include five other Republican lawmakers. The measure was introduced Monday.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval said today he had productive meetings in Washington, DC, including talks with federal officials about clearing the way for permits to be approved so mining companies can expand and hire more workers.
Sandoval said there are several permits awaiting action that mining officials have told him could lead to the creation of 1,000 high-paying jobs in rural Nevada.
Creating jobs in Nevada is Sandoval’s top priority as governor. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation and ranks first in home foreclosures as well.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval will propose a change to the retirement system for new state employees that would reduce their current pension benefits by one half and cut the long-term liability for taxpayers by the same amount, his chief of staff said today.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval today elaborated on the details of a bill he is proposing to establish a school voucher system in Nevada.
The proposal would allow parents to receive a state-funded, per pupil subsidy to opt out of public schools in favor of private schools, including religious schools.
The stipend, or voucher, would help families pay expenses at the private schools.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada residents bear the second lowest state and local tax burden of any state at 7.5 percent, behind only Alaska at 6.3 percent, according to a new report from the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
Professor Michael Young began to think last year that he should look for a job outside of Nevada.
It was not the craziest thought; the recession was in full swing and legislators were slashing the higher education budget.
Young was a departmental director at the Desert Research Institute. Now he’s an associate director at the University of Texas, Austin.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Ted McAleer says he’s got a silver bullet for creating jobs in the Silver State.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Freshman Republican state Sen. Michael Roberson got a lot of people’s attention last week when he engaged in a brief but spirited line of questioning at a Judiciary Committee hearing with mining industry lobbyists.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – State senator Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, has had enough of percentages.
Just the numbers, please, was his basic request at a Senate Finance committee meeting this past week as various state agencies delivered their budget reports.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A coffee shop across the street from the Legislature announces “let the games begin.”
With the Legislature in session for less than two weeks, Democratic legislators seem to be playing the game well.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Business leaders from several large technology companies said today that Nevada lacks the skilled workforce necessary for them to locate in Nevada over the long-term.

CARSON CITY – About 50 state employees gathered in front of the Legislative Building today to call on Gov. Brian Sandoval to participate in a discussion about potential tax increases to help fund the state budget.
With the wind blowing at a steady clip, Vishnu Subramaniam, AFSCME Local 4041, chief of staff, said: “This is a great analogy of what’s going on in the state. They’re trying to blow us away while we’re providing services.
“We need a broad-based corporate tax,” he said. “We need to be having a talk about revenues. The talk of cuts is a red herring.”

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Legislators have done this week what the cynical among us would never have expected: they got right to work.
The chatter in the hallways at 401 S Carson Street has revolved around the fast pace legislators seem to be setting during their first week in session. Legislators are already listening to testimony about bills. Legislative leaders are already rolling out big jobs bills.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Democratic legislative leaders today announced they will pursue legislation to ensure Nevadans are employed on state or local government public works projects.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Secretary of State Ross Miller says the time is ripe to get a substantial campaign finance reform package through the Legislature, and with Gov. Brian Sandoval and lawmakers of both parties in agreement on the need for change, he may be right.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Construction industry groups advocating for a tax increase to fund public works projects around the state to help put people back to work made their pitch to a legislative committee today, but the Building Jobs Coalition proposal faces opposition from Gov. Brian Sandoval.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – For Gov. Brian Sandoval, every penny counts as he tries to balance a two-year state budget with drastically reduced tax revenues.
At the Board of Examiners meeting today, Sandoval was able to eliminate a new vehicle purchase worth about $40,000 for the state dignitary protection program by finding a suitable vehicle in the state motor pool to fit the bill.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada state legislators may catch a break under a debt-relief proposal from President Barack Obama.
Obama has proposed deferring interest payments on money the states have borrowed to pay unemployment insurance benefits.

CARSON CITY – Nevadans could pay up to $625,684 to consultants who are helping the state implement the controversial federal health care reform law under a state contract.
The contract with Massachusetts-based Public Consulting Group allows up to that level of spending through June 30, 2012.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Long lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles could be a thing of the past under a new proposal.
The new director of the state’s DMV plans to ask the Legislature to pass a bill that would allow 80 new, self-service kiosks in many Nevada neighborhoods.