EDITORIAL: Special session bill would leave Nevadans in the dark

Mark Twain once noted, “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” That’s doubly true during a special session.

Nevada’s 36th special session ended Wednesday night. The Hollywood handout proposal generated the most attention. It barely passed the Assembly on Sunday. The two Republican legislators who pushed it over the top voted remotely. It was reported they had left Carson City to go on vacation. One can hardly blame them for fleeing, but their absence underscored the slapdash nature of this sorry endeavor. There was no emergency and no need to call a special session.

On Wednesday night, the Senate voted on the film bill. Usually, legislative leaders don’t bring up legislation unless they have the votes to pass it. Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro had a different strategy. The film tax credit bill failed by one vote.

Another bit of drama came when legislators added corporate homeownership to the agenda. A recent constitutional amendment gave legislators the ability to call themselves into a special session. That bill passed the Senate without objection but stalled in the Assembly. Because it raised revenue, it required two-thirds approval. Once again, by a single vote, it failed.

There’s a lesson for voters. Legislative races — the ones way down the ballot — make a big difference. Unfortunately, the Legislature wants to make it harder to figure out if a candidate actually lives in the district he or she seeks to represent.

Currently, a candidate or elected official’s declaration of residency is publicly available. Assembly Bill 3, which passed both houses with minimal opposition, would allow elected officials to hide their addresses from the public. That would make it harder to uncover candidates who skirt residency requirements. That’s not a theoretical concern. In 2014, a judge found that candidate Meghan Smith was ineligible to run for a Southern Nevada Assembly seat because she didn’t meet the residency requirements.

“The Nevada Press Association believes deeply that public information is essential to the function of our government,” Brian Allfrey, the executive director of the Nevada Press Association, and Bob Conrad, a board member of the Nevada Open Government Coalition, said in a letter. “Transparency is the cornerstone of accountability; it allows Nevadans to see how decisions are made, how public resources are used, and how public officials conduct themselves in the performance of their duties.”

The Legislature wasn’t interested. Gov. Joe Lombardo should veto this bill. Although, given the embarrassment of this circus, it’s understandable that lawmakers want to keep the public in the dark.