Legislature

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting tonight that Charles Harvey, Nevada's economic stimulus coordinator who Gov. Jim Gibbons hired in September amid objections from the Nevada Legislature, has resigned.
Gibbons says he plans to hire a replacement for the $125,783 annual-salaried position.

CARSON CITY – A plan to close Nevada State Prison in phases over the next several months will be on hold for further consideration by the Board of Prison Commissioners next month, but Gov. Jim Gibbons said today that he will continue to authorize transfers of inmates for safety and security reasons.

CARSON CITY – Nevada state Treasurer candidate Steve Martin is questioning the method Treasurer Kate Marshall is using to account for the loss of interest income from a failed $50 million investment with the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers.
Martin is also questioning whether Marshall has the authority to write off the interest loss to agencies and programs over a period of four and a half years.

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Council for the Prevention of Domestic Violence is seeking new members. The application is brief and submissions will be accepted now through July 31.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons today approved a plan to phase out operations at the Nevada State Prison in the capital. The decision by the lame duck governor comes even though the Legislature has rejected past attempts to close the facility.
“It costs taxpayers an extra $4,000 to $6,000 per inmate for prisoners at NSP because the facility is so old and poorly designed,� Gibbons said. “Additionally, NSP is not as safe for prison staff as other facilities.�

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons approved plans today to phase-out operations at the 650-inmate Nevada State Prison in Carson City.

“It costs taxpayers an extra $4,000 to $6,000 per inmate for prisoners at NSP because the facility is so old and poorly designed,” Gibbons said. “Additionally, NSP is not as safe for prison staff as other facilities.”

CARSON CITY – For the first time since 1992, Nevada voters will find no question on their November ballot that qualified as the result of a citizen’s initiative petition, the secretary of state’s office has reported.
The deadline for submitting the required number of signatures to county clerks passed Tuesday with no petitions presented in any county. Three petitions to amend the state Constitution were in circulation.

CARSON CITY – The Republican Assembly Caucus has elected Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea as its new minority leader, replacing the retiring Assemblywoman Heidi Gansert.
Goicoechea, R-Eureka, was the unanimous choice of the 14-member caucus.
Gansert, R-Reno, is not running for re-election to the Assembly.

CARSON CITY – One proposal sought to increase mining taxes and another wanted to define life as beginning at conception. A third would have required secret ballots for employee votes on whether to join a union and yet another would have given Nevada residents the right to reject participation in government backed health care.

CARSON CITY – Jim Gibbons’ lame duck status as chief executive became a certainty on primary election day June 8, but the Legislature will add its own stamp of finality next week when it is asked to approve $20,000 for an official portrait of Nevada’s 28th governor.
Nevada law provides for an official portrait of each departing governor for display in the state Capitol Building.

The state has signed a four-year $12 million contract with AT&T for telecommunications services, including private network, managed internet services and security, now making AT&T the primary communications provider in Northern Nevada.

Ok, so we know who won. But did yesterday's vote tell us anything?

I wrote earlier about how the outcome of the supervisors races could give us a clue on how the public views the Nugget Project, AKA the Carson City Center Project.

Karen Abowd, the only candidate to openly support the project, did come in first in her primary with 31 percent of the vote in a six-way race.

CARSON CITY – In the fight for control of the Republican Party in the state Senate in the Tuesday primary it was an even split, with conservative candidates taking two of four contested seats and two others going to more moderate candidates backed by Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons expressed optimism today that Congress will act to extend Medicaid funding that was counted on by state lawmakers in February when they approved an $800 million plan to balance the budget.

CARSON CITY – The state Board of Examiners today approved a request by the Nevada Department of Corrections for $3.4 million to cover unanticipated expenses, much of it to cover the increased cost of providing inmate medical care.
The board, made up of Gov. Jim Gibbons, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller, approved the request for the current fiscal year that ends June 30. It now goes to the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee for approval on June 24.

CARSON CITY – While voters and political observers are focused on the Tuesday primary, Nevadans seeking access to the November ballot for measures they are pushing to amend the state Constitution have another key date in mind.
June 15 is the deadline for groups pushing their amendments to turn in the nearly 100,000 signatures they need to qualify the measures for the ballot. There are three initiative petitions to amend the state constitution still active, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

Despite a broken public education system and gloomy outlook for the state’s K-12 students, effective reform might very well be on the horizon for Nevada.
The reform that is gaining the most traction in the state is that of publicly funded empowerment schools that are able to make decisions on schedules, staffing, budgeting and instruction separately from a centralized school district.  The system also provides students with a choice as to which public schools they attend, and schools are funded based on how many students they attract.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons said today the political pundits and pollsters may be in for a surprise when the votes are counted in the GOP governor’s race on primary election day June 8.

CARSON CITY – A proposal to simplify, broaden and stabilize Nevada’s tax base by expanding and reducing the sales tax to include services from haircuts to legal advice is generating some support and plenty of questions from lawmakers and interest groups.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons has announced his initiative petition to amend state law to subject public employee union negotiations to Nevada’s open meeting law has passed a legal challenge period, allowing the signature gathering process to begin.

CARSON CITY – Both Democrat and Republican lawmakers agree the 2011 legislative session will likely see a debate about the future of Nevada’s public employee pension program, but differences remain over whether radical change is needed to protect the state from a multi-billion long-term unfunded liability.

With early voting under way for the Nevada primaries, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Chad Christensen yesterday maintained that he will come out on top, despite polls showing him trailing well behind candidates Sue Lowden, Sharron Angle, and Danny Tarkanian..

CARSON CITY – Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford said he is confident a qualified candidate will be found to serve as secretary to the Senate for the 2011 session and that the upper house will continue to be run in a way that serves both the 21 senators and the people of Nevada.

Obtaining leases from three state agencies has been cited by the people pushing the Nugget Project as a critical piece to its success.

But, there's been more than a little skepticism that the State of Nevada, staring down the barrel of a $3 billion deficit in its next budget, has any appetite for spending money it doesn't have to.

Part 2 of a Series on Key GOP State Senate Primary Races
CARSON CITY – While Republican voters have a rare chance to chart the course of the GOP Senate caucus in the upcoming primary, the candidates described by some political observers as the establishment choice say they too are true fiscal conservatives who believe in core party values.

CARSON CITY – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sue Lowden has a new ad attacking her GOP rival Sharron Angle over her past votes in the Nevada Legislature to raise lawmaker pay as the June 8 primary draws near and early voting is set to begin tomorrow.

Part 1 of 2 on Five Key State Senate Races
CARSON CITY – Over the past several legislative sessions the state Senate Republican caucus has shown a willingness to work across the aisle with Democrats, with some GOP lawmakers voting more than once for tax increases as a way to balance the budget.

CARSON CITY – A member of the citizen’s panel appointed by lawmakers to chart Nevada’s future for the next 20 years expressed concern today about whether the process to be followed to complete the effort conforms to meet the requirements of the state Open Meeting Law.

Legislators this week voiced objections to the passage of Senate Bill 5 during the 2010 special session, which lifted the sunset on a temporary sales tax increase that was passed by voters in 2002.

RENO – One Democrat running for lieutenant governor criticized the GOP incumbent for being invisible in the job, and all three Democrat candidates appearing at a debate Wednesday evening took jabs at each other as the June 8 primary election day draws near.