Process of drafting bills for ‘99 session under way

Tuesday, Dec. 22, 1998 | 11:55 a.m.

By law, bill-draft requests submitted before the start of sessions are not required to divulge the author's name or to be more than a sentence long.

But consumer issues will be a top concern at the '99 session if the requests are any indication.

Cellular phones are the focus of at least two BDRs that would outlaw their use by motorists because of safety concerns.

Mobile home park tenants would have their own ombudsman to resolve grievances under a BDR forwarded by Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas.

Other BDRs propose ombudsmen for health-maintenance organizations and the state Division of Insurance, frequent targets of consumer wrath.

Highway speed limits, a biennial hot topic, are again a target of rural Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora. He's seeking to ease penalties for speeding in some cases.

Other anonymous BDRs would lower speed limits during bad weather and revise the wide array of limits set in 1995 after Congress did away with the 55 mph limit.

Taxes and fees are the targets of other BDRs, as they have been at past sessions.

Assemblywoman-elect Dawn Gibbons, R-Reno, wants to cap annual property tax increases resulting from higher assessments.

An anonymous lawmaker wants to charge fees for motorcyclists and bicyclists entering state parks, and another wants to give employers credit on their quarterly business tax if they recycle.

Other ideas: changing the way property taxes are calculated for homes, and raising the room tax and real-property transfer tax to help build schools.

Casinos and their employees would be prohibited from contributing to political campaigns in another BDR submitted by Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas.

Another BDR submitted by Assemblywoman-elect Bonnie Parnell, D-Carson City, would require a moment of patriotic observance each day in public schools.