Horsford

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, and the Tax Commission Monday agreed to begin a complete review and rewrite of regulations governing mining tax deductions.Commission Chairma...

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Tax Commission today agreed to undertake a review of the exemptions granted mining companies to ensure the proper amount of taxes are being paid by the industry to the state and county governments.
The request for the review came from Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, acting in the capacity as a private citizen, using a state law to request the commission to undertake an emergency rule-making process.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Campus closures, consolidations and mergers are back on the table after the Board of Regents today undid a vote from last month to not consider campus closures, which itself followed a February vote to consider campus closures.
Many of the smaller colleges are in districts represented by Republicans.

CARSON CITY – Campus closures, consolidations and mergers are back on the table after the Board of Regents today undid a vote from last month to not consider campus closures, which itself followed a February vote to consider campus closures.
Many of the smaller colleges are in districts represented by Republicans.

CARSON CITY – A proposed constitutional amendment that would require a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to cut funding to or impose an unfunded mandate on local governments was heartily endorsed today by local officials including the mayors of Reno and Las Vegas.

CARSON CITY – A proposed constitutional amendment that would require a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to cut funding to or impose an unfunded mandate on local governments was heartily endorsed today by local officials including the mayors of Reno and Las Vegas.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Add it up and some of them have to die.
There is not enough time for the Legislature to hear every bill, but that has not stopped Republicans from accusing Democrats of ignoring Republican bills.

CARSON CITY – Add it up and some of them have to die.
There is not enough time for the Legislature to hear every bill, but that has not stopped Republicans from accusing Democrats of ignoring Republican bills.
The partisan sniping comes as legislators are scrambling to save their bills from extinction of bills as a legislative deadline looms.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Tax revenues, or more specifically the lack thereof, have been topic No. 1 during the 2011 legislative session.
Thus far it’s been mostly talk, with GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval saying no to any new taxes or fees and some Democrat lawmakers saying additional revenues are essential to preserve education and critical social services. Republican lawmakers thus far are standing with the governor.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A two-hour review by the full Senate today of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed two-year, $5.8 billion general fund budget spent a lot of time on what his spending plan could mean well into the future.

By Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The Senate majority leader today advanced a bill intended to make state and local government contracts more efficient and transparent to benefit both taxpayers and consumers was reviewed by a legislative subcommittee on Friday.

CARSON CITY – Nevada’s two largest school districts could increase classes sizes by five students during the upcoming school year.
Superintendents from Clark and Washoe Counties said they would put more children in classrooms to address Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed budget cuts.
Those budget cuts could result in hundreds of school district positions eliminated in Washoe County and 2,486 positions in Clark County.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – State Sen. Steven Horsford asked the Nevada Tax Commission today to act immediately to tighten up regulations on the deductions allowed to mining companies before they must pay the net proceeds on minerals tax to the state and counties.

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

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 – In certain circles, nothing raises the collective blood pressure like talk of ARRA and the federal stimulus bill.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that President Barack Obama signed into law two years ago has channeled $800 billion to the states in an attempt to jolt the economy to life.

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 – 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.

CARSON CITY —  The Nevada Legislature today voted unanimously to adopt a resolution that would cut their salaries by 4.6 percent.

CARSON CITY – They speak of limbs hacked off, death and guts.
In a war of words, critics of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s $5.8 billion budget have lambasted his proposed cuts to K-12, higher education and health and human services.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – While there has been a lot of criticism directed at the details of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed spending plan, there is acclaim for his development of a new budgeting process designed to ensure state agencies get results with taxpayer dollars.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The Republican minority leadership in the Senate and the Assembly has called on critics of GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed budget to trade their “rhetoric for a plan.”

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
A prominent education official has called for tax increases to offset the proposed higher education budget cuts in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – While several state lawmakers say they are seeking changes to the popular Millennium Scholarship for Nevada’s academically successful high school graduates, no one yet is pushing for income eligibility restrictions to ensure the program’s continued viability.