Nevada Legislature

The National Rifle Association (NRA) this month formally approved the Nevada Firearms Coalition (NFC) as its new, officially sanctioned state association in Nevada.
The group is a registered nonprofit Nevada corporation and according to its website is dedicated “to the ownership and safe use of firearms for self-defense, competition, recreation and hunting.”

CARSON CITY – Scott Beaulier is no fan of states borrowing money, but in his new working paper on transitioning public pensions to 401(k) style plans to reduce taxpayer liabilities to pay retirement benefits, the Troy University professor says it is an option worth considering.

For the first time in 10 years, states cut taxes more than they increased them, according to a preliminary report released last week by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
But voters should not draw hasty conclusions about what this means for states’ fiscal health. Most states continued to face substantial budget shortfalls during their 2011 legislative sessions, even though some states saw revenue collections increase.

CARSON CITY – Nevada State Engineer Jason King today announced additional locations for public comment during the upcoming Southern Nevada Water Authority water-rights hearings.

CARSON CITY – Nevadans are more pessimistic now about the state of the economy than they have been since early 2010, according to the most recent poll commissioned by the Retail Association of Nevada.

CARSON CITY – As Nevada policy makers get set to examine the state’s public employee pension plan in advance of the 2013 legislative session, a new report from the Center for State and Local Government Excellence offers some timely advice on how other government agencies have accomplished the difficult task.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval said today state officials will meet with Clark and Washoe county representatives who are seeking nearly $124 million in refunds from the state – before deciding if litigation is necessary.
Sandoval, attending a meeting of the Board of Examiners, said afterward that Nevadans expect their elected officials to talk over disputes to see if they can be resolved before resorting to the courts.

Nevada consumers and small businesses can now review and comment on rate hikes in their health insurance policies online.

A legislative subcommittee decided yesterday to cut or delay several building and maintenance projects due to budget constraints. The Interim Finance Committee (IFC) today will vote whether to approve the recommendations made by the subcommittee.

Thanks to a letter written by a concerned citizen, Nevada owners of a concealed weapons (CCW) permit may soon be able to purchase more firearms without further background checks and the associated $25 fee.

The Legislative Commission today approved new fees for public record requests and a new expense report form for elections as well as appointed members to two dozen committees that meet during the interim.

CARSON CITY – When Jeff Mohlenkamp decided to accept the job as Nevada’s newest budget director, he knew going in it was going to be a challenge.
The state’s economic slump continues to be a drag on funding government services, although gaming and sales tax revenues have shown some improvement in recent months.

CARSON CITY – Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said today it will probably be another month before she can publicly report the results of her staff’s legal conclusions regarding requests for refunds from the state by Clark and Washoe counties totaling $123 million.
Masto said her office is still “moving through the process” to determine if any refunds are owed the two local governments. Once that analysis is completed, Masto said her legal findings will be shared privately with Gov. Brian Sandoval.

In the 2011 session of the Nevada Legislature, there was once again a plethora of bills to license, regulate and tax all manner of businesses and individual activity. These ranged from forcing mope...

CARSON CITY – Lawmakers from 13 western states, including some from Nevada, will converge on Hawaii at the end of the month.

CARSON CITY – Term limited Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, today announced he will run for Congress in one of four districts that have yet to be finalized in Nevada’s contested redistricting process.
Oceguera, a native fourth-generation Nevadan, said he wants to bring his skills in finding compromise on difficult issues honed in the Nevada Legislature over the past nearly dozen years to the House of Representatives.

CARSON CITY – Efforts to resolve Nevada’s redistricting impasse remain a work in progress after a proposal floated Tuesday by a Carson City judge to use county election officials to draw new legislative and congressional lines ran into some opposition.
The job of redrawing Nevada’s political lines has fallen to District Judge James Todd Russell after two Democrat-approved redistricting plans were vetoed by Gov. Brian Sandoval. Sandoval vetoed the measures after concluding the proposals did not follow the federal Voting Rights Act.

CARSON CITY – A contractors representative told the state Transportation Board today that officials missed out on opportunities to increase road funding in the 2011 legislative session, and that failing to act promptly on the issue could cost Northern Nevada a competitive bid for the 2022

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Supreme Court today upheld a lower court decision saying that Democrat and Republican party officials should pick their candidates to run in a special election to fill a vacancy in Congressional District 2.

Are "the people's" Constitutional rights to elect our representatives being ignored by the secretary of state, the Nevada Legislature and the courts? The U.S. Constitution clearly states that the "...

CARSON CITY – Attorneys for the state Democrat and Republican parties argued their cases Tuesday before the Nevada Supreme Court over whether they should pick their candidates for the special election to fill the vacant 2nd Congressional District seat, or whether it should be a “ballot royale.”

Assemblyman Pete Livermore talks about the recently concluded session of the Nevada Legislature.

RENO – For the three leading Republican candidates seeking the Congressional District 2 seat vacated with the appointment of Dean Heller to the U.S. Senate, it was all about qualifications and experience in a debate held here Wednesday.
State Republican Party Chairman Mark Amodei, a former state senator, state Sen. Greg Brower, appointed to fill the seat formerly held by retired Sen. Bill Raggio, and retired Navy commander Kirk Lippold, faced off ahead of a GOP meeting Saturday in Sparks that could determine which candidate will get the party nod.

Gov. Brian Sandoval has vetoed two more pieces of legislation send to his desk by the Nevada Legislature.Senate Bill 207, he said, provides the Labor Commissioner with duplicative and unnecessary a...

Kudos and a tip of the hat to the members of the 176th Legislative Session that grappled with a horrendous amount of issues of which the budget was the showstopper, with redistricting playing secon...

Kudos and a tip of the hat to the members of the 176th Legislative Session that grappled with a horrendous amount of issues of which the budget was the showstopper, with redistricting playing secon...

Last week, I wrote about how the pressures of the final hours of the Nevada Legislature result in lots of bad lawmaking. Today, Anjeanette Damon details some really odious bits of sausage making, including a measure to benefit NV Energy that could cost rate payers $1 billion.

This episode supports the contention that the 120-day session limit makes for very bad legislating. Limiting the number of days the Legislature meets does not limit the mischief that can cause. It simply gives the lobbyists and inside wheeler-dealers all the power, while shutting out the public.

CARSON CITY – Nevada ranks 6th among the states in a new index generated by the Mercatus Center called “Freedom in the 50 States, An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom.”

CARSON CITY – Some GOP lawmakers say a bill introduced late in the just-ended 2011 session appears to be an attempt to move the Nevada Legislature more toward a full-time operation in the period in-between the biennial sessions.
Republican lawmakers critical of Assembly Bill 578 also say it would limit participation on interim policy panels by many of the 63 state lawmakers.

After four months of heated debate in the Nevada Legislature and down-to-the-wire votes in the early morning hours Tuesday, the dust is finally settling around a $2.2 billion K-12 schools budget an...