Behind the Bar: Snow day edition
Behind the Bar is The Nevada Independent’s newsletter devoted to comprehensive and accessible coverage of the 2023 legislative session.
In today’s (slightly abridged) edition: Winter weather returns — with a vengeance! Plus, the governor signs a budget maneuvering bill, a quick look at tribal water issues, and breakdown of what bill hearings were hit with the snow schedule shuffle.
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Days until:
- Last day for bill introductions: 27
- First house passage deadline: 56
- Sine die: 97
In which ‘six more weeks of winter’ becomes reality
Another week, another major Western snowstorm — big enough to drop snow on Los Angeles, too.
In Nevada, the storms have prompted early concern over worsening travel conditions. That left state offices shuttered early Friday afternoon and closed in advance Monday, with snow expected to continue into Tuesday. Even UNR shuttered its doors before any snow had hit the ground.
In practical terms, Northern Nevada is quite cold right now. In legislative terms, it means lawmakers have lost at least two days of bill hearings — an extra weekend’s worth of missed time in a state already notable for its harried and frantic biennial 120-day sessions.
But here’s a little trivia for you: With the governor’s office closing state offices in the early morning, including the Legislature — both the Assembly and Senate gaveled in and quickly adjourned Monday morning without a quorum present. (All scheduled committee meetings for Monday were canceled.)
Legislative Counsel Bureau Director Brenda Erdoes told The Nevada Independent Monday that such an adjournment was “very rare” in the last few decades.
Why convene a session at all? Legislators, by law, cannot skip three consecutive days, Erdoes said, requiring the sessions on Monday and adjournment until Wednesday for the Assembly and Thursday for the Senate.
And not for nothing: The forecast for Tuesday remains grim.
— Jacob Solis and Tabitha Mueller
Lombardo looks to boost charter school transportation with money bill
Gov. Joe Lombardo signed his first (non-procedural) bill Monday, SB124, a budget maneuver that ends a mining tax prepayment early — this fiscal year rather than the next biennium — and shifts $70 million from the 2023 general fund to the fiscal year 2024 education fund.
The bill ensures the state’s mining industry will avoid making another prepayment on estimated taxes owed next month — a “prepayment” of taxes adopted by lawmakers in a 2020 special session to help plug a budget hole amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bill also ends a process in which certain mining taxes earmarked for the education budget were routed first through county governments (which kept a 5 percent commission) and instead sends the money directly to the State Education Fund.
In a statement announcing the bill signing Monday, Lombardo said the move “makes sense” because of the state’s budget surplus and subsequent “budgetary flexibility.”
Now with funds in hand, the governor also has signaled his support for a state-sponsored transportation program for Nevada charter school students to be paid for, in part, with the SB124 money. State charter schools do not receive dedicated state funding for transportation costs, and entities such as the Commision on School Funding have recommended additional funding for charter school transportation costs.
“I plan to work with the Legislature to utilize a portion of these new funds to make that a reality,” Lombardo said in a statement.
Passed 13-8 in the Senate and 37-5 in the Assembly, the bill saw some early pushback from Republicans. That briefly included Senate Minority Leader Heidi Seevers Gansert (R-Reno), who in floor remarks criticized the bill’s short timeline to passage and uncertainty over how the move would “domino through the budget.”
But one week and three clarifying amendments later, the minority leader backed a Senate concurrence, with the money more clearly shifting from the general fund to the state’s education fund.
“It took a while to figure out what would happen with this bill,” she said during floor remarks last week.
— Jacob Solis
Legislation would remove barriers to water funding, surveying for tribal nations
In 1973, the Legislature created a program that allowed local governments to apply for funding for the clearance, maintenance, restoration, surveying and monumenting of some of the state’s largest rivers, including the Truckee and Colorado rivers. But tribal nations were not eligible.
New legislation, AB19, will correct that historic oversight, allowing Indigenous communities to apply for funding under the state program. At a committee hearing last week, State Engineer Adam Sullivan, Nevada’s top water regulator and the head of the Division of Water Resources, noted tribes have recently sought, but have not been given access to the grant funding.
“Simply put, I believe this bill represents doing the right thing,” Sullivan said.
During testimony on the bill, the Nevada Indian Commission, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and The Nature Conservancy backed the proposed legislation. The legislation would also allow tribal officials, who are not licensed professional engineers, to work as water right surveyors, the same allowance given to employees of the federal government.
Stacey Montooth, who directs the Nevada Indian Commission, said the “addition of tribal government to programs and services that are already in place… makes complete sense.”
Across the West, state and federal programs have created barriers for Native American tribes to access water, even in many cases when Indigenous communities have priority rights to water.
— Daniel Rothberg
What we’re reading and writing
Tesla in line for $330 million in tax breaks for multibillion-dollar Gigafactory expansion, by Sean Golonka
What’s a few hundred million in new tax abatements between friends?
From face masks to tutors and bonuses, districts show how they spent wave of federal aid, by Rocio Hernandez
In which Rocio dives deep on how school districts spent a $1.6 billion cash injection.
Freshman Orientation: For Assemblyman Max Carter II, tragedy changed his trajectory, by Naoka Foreman
The latest in our Freshman Orientation series.
FAA awards $31 million to Harry Reid International Airport to improve baggage claim, by Gabby Birenbaum
A 40-year-old baggage claim now set for a $31 million facelift.
Follow the Money: Nevada Realtors spread the wealth among lawmakers, by Sean Golonka and Jacob Solis
In a record legislative fundraising year, the real estate industry was second only to unions.
One year out, Republicans preview how Nevadans will land on presidential nomination, by Gabby Birenbaum
Don’t look now — 2024 is just around the corner…
A look at the week ahead ?
A snow-induced schedule shuffle
On Monday, state lawmakers were set to review a presentation on COVID relief programs, a measure seeking to authorize chiropractors to treat head injuries and a piece of legislation that would prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against transgender people, among other proposals.
But meetings and bill hearings were canceled after a blizzard struck the Northern Nevada region, causing a 36-car pileup in Washoe Valley on Sunday and wind speeds blowing snow at more than 40 mph Monday afternoon.
While lawmakers reschedule Monday agenda items, here’s a sneak peek at a few bills on upcoming agendas:
- Tuesday
- AB73 has its first hearing in the Assembly Committee on Education. The bill would establish the right of public school students to wear traditional tribal regalia or other recognized objects of cultural or religious significance at school graduation ceremonies
- Wednesday
- AB45 is set to be heard in the Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services. It would establish a loan repayment program for certain health care providers.
- Thursday
- AB50 is up for its first hearing in the Assembly Committee on Judiciary and seeks to authorize the attorney general to investigate and prosecute the crime of organized retail theft.
— Tabitha Mueller
And to ease you into the week, a few tweets that caught our eye:
- A look at the #nvleg crystal ball says…
- All dressed up and nowhere to go
- At least it’s sunny somewhere
- The Indy’s newest dad makes his triumphant return
- Finally, some available parking
We’ll see you on Friday.
Editor’s Note: This story appears in Behind the Bar, The Nevada Independent’s newsletter dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the 2023 legislative session. Sign up for the newsletter here.