Committee bill deadline causes rush

CARSON CITY -- Repealing constitutional tax caps for the mining industry and imposing a moratorium on the death penalty were among hundreds of bills introduced Monday as Nevada lawmakers pushed into the night to meet a midnight deadline for committee bill introductions.

About 80 bills read into the record and assigned to committees implement Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval's $5.8 billion budget and proposals to consolidate agencies and shift funding responsibilities from the state to counties, such as pre-sentence investigations for offenders, juvenile justice programs and child protective services.

In all, 110 bills and two resolutions were introduced Monday in the Assembly; 107 bills and four resolutions were introduced in the Senate.

Senate Joint Resolution 15 would repeal a constitutional provision that currently limits taxes paid by the mining industry to 5 percent of net proceeds -- an amount determined after deductions.

Mining has come under increased scrutiny this session, in part because of record high gold prices and an acknowledgement by the former state tax chief that his agency hadn't conducted any field audits of the industry in two years. Other bills would increase mining claim fees and establish a mining oversight committee.

Sandoval, who has pledged not to raise taxes and to veto any bill that contains a fee or tax increase, wants to cut state support for the Nevada System of Higher Education by $162 million. In return, he has proposed allowing Nevada's two universities to take 9 cents of property taxes collected in Clark and Washoe counties -- money that was snatched by the state in 2009 to help shore up state coffers.

The governor also said he would support giving university regents the authority to raise tuition and keep money from those increases for use at the campuses where it is generated. Bills authorizing those changes were part of Monday's night's marathon session.

SJR14, another constitutional amendment, seeks to create an appeals court to hear intermediate appeals. It's an idea that has been rejected by voters three times in the past 30 years, most recently in November. A similar provision was introduced in the Assembly as Assembly Joint Resolution 7.

AJR8 is Sandoval's proposed constitutional amendment to implement school vouchers.

The constitutional amendments would require passage by the 2011 and 2013 Legislatures and approval by voters in 2014.

AB501 would establish a moratorium on executions in Nevada until July 1, 2013, while a study on the death penalty is conducted.

Other notable measures:

■ AB554 requires the Department of Education to assign a letter grade to each school district and public school regarding student achievement, as proposed by the governor.

■ AB479 implements 10-hour, four-day workweeks for state employees.

■ AB507 raises fuel taxes by 2 cents to 19.65 cents per gallon on Jan. 1, 2012, with additional 2 cent increases annually until 2016.

■ SB495 is a competing measure to an initiative petition that will appear on the November 2012 ballot to create a special taxing district in an area near the Las Vegas Strip to finance construction of a sports arena. SB495 would prohibit creation of special taxing district and require uniform rates of sales and use taxes in a county.