Nevada legislators have plenty left to do in last week of session
CARSON CITY — Nevada lawmakers are rounding the final turn and heading down the backstretch of the final full week of the 2013 session.
But there’s still plenty of jockeying going on as legislators and lobbyists jostle and maneuver in a mad dash toward the June 3 finish line.
Here are five things to know about the upcoming agenda when legislators begin the 17th week of the session today :
BUDGETS, BUDGETS, BUDGETS
Legislative money committees have held daily hearings for months, reviewing in painstaking detail the minutia that is state government.
While funding for public schools, higher education and state employees has garnered the biggest headlines, Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees have also mucked through the weeds: replacing Tasers for public safety officers, new squad cars, boilers for a prison, computer replacements, software updates, building maintenance.
Those months of data drilling and number crunching come together this week with the introduction of major budget bills that will set out spending for the next two years. The five bills will lay out general appropriations, authorizations, capital improvements, public school funding and state workers’ pay.
MEDICINAL POT
More than a decade after Nevada voters approved medical marijuana, the Legislature may finally provide a way for patients to legally acquire the drug.
Senate Bill 374 was approved by the Senate Finance Committee last week and is awaiting a vote by the full Senate.
The bill being shepherded by Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, would set up a structure for licensing and regulating medical pot growers, processors and dispensaries.
It has bipartisan support in committee, suggesting passage is likely.
SCRAP THAT COAL
NV Energy’s plan to retire coal-fired power plants and pave the way for the state’s biggest electrical utility to transition to more renewable sources won unanimous approval by the Senate.
It will be heard today by the Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor.
Under the bill, NV Energy would eliminate at least 800 megawatts of coal-fired electricity generating capacity by Dec. 31, 2019.
The bill also provides for the construction or acquisition of 350 megawatts of generating capacity from renewable energy and another 550 megawatts of capacity from other electricity generating plants such as natural gas .
FUN, FUN, FUN
Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick doesn’t like loopholes.
Her admissions tax proposal to charge an 8 percent levy on just about everything from concert and movie tickets to golf and NASCAR races was supposed to replace the exemption-riddled live entertainment tax. But it ran into a buzz-saw of opposition. Republicans dubbed it the “family fun tax.”
Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, defended her bill as a way to start the discussion about closing exemptions. She’s been doing a lot of talking with a lot of folks who don’t like it.
An amended version of the proposal — with exemptions — is expected to be introduced this week.
GUN CONTROL
A bill mandating universal background checks for gun transactions cleared the Nevada Senate in a party-line vote.
This week it moves to the Assembly, where despite a Democratic majority, passage is hardly assured.
Senate Bill 221, sponsored by Sen. Justin Jones, D-Las Vegas, would require a background check almost any time a firearm changes hands.
Opponents are rallying to try to kill it.
