Some win, some lose in 1999 legislative session

Jennifer Coleman

Tuesday, June 1, 1999 | 7:25 a.m.

CARSON CITY - You win some, you lose some. As the 1999 Legislative session wrapped up, state employees and prison workers got a raise while the state lost a chance to generate up to $28 million for health care.

Prison guards got a 7 percent raise, in addition to more protection from prisoners and a salary survey to see how their pay compares to guards in other western states. State employees got an unexpected 2 percent raise.

But the legislators killed a bill that would have generated upt to $28 million for Nevada health care needs. The Senate shelved the bill, AB685, directed at Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Nevada, which merged in 1996 with Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Colorado. Blue Cross lobbyists opposed the plan.

"I can't complain," says Ed Flagg, president of the Nevada Corrections Association. "We've got raises. This was a good session for us."

Also passed was a bill to increase the sentences of prisoners who throw bodily fluids.

Flagg's group also successfully lobbied on behalf of the prison medical workers who fought to prevent a privatization of the prison health care. Gov. Kenny Guinn had proposed contracting out the work to save $4.4 million over two years.

Prison medical workers were able to convince lawmakers that the state employees could become more efficient, while allowing the state to maintain control over the division.

Here's a list of other proposals in the win-lose-draw categories:

-LOST: A bill to decriminalize the first-time possession of less than an ounce of marijuana got nowhere. The plan was to impose a fine of up to $500, which would go to anti-drug programs. But lawmakers decided it would result in claims that they're soft on crime. The state has the toughest pot laws in the country. Possession of any amount is a felony.

-LOST: A bill requested by Boyd Gaming Inc. to allow Boyd to develop two properties the company said were accidentally left out when lawmakers drew boundaries for casino development districts in the Las Vegas area.

-LOST: Insurance coverage mandates that didn't make it included required policies for infertility treatments, early screening for breast cancer and osteoporosis.

-WON: A bill by Sen. Bernice Mathews sets up a $750,000 grant program for school libraries to replenish aging book collections. Students from the Bernice Mathews Elementary School in Sparks testified that the shelves in the school libraries are bare and the few books there are outdated.

-WON: Nevada's rural schools now have a place to turn to when aging school buildings need to be repaired or replaced. A $16 million fund for emergency construction or remodeling was approved by the Legislature.

-WON: Other rural schools who made out include the White Pine County School District, who were bailed out of a $3.3 million loan from the state made in 1995. Relieved of making payments on the $2 million balance, the school will now have an extra $328,000 per year to spend on students. And Lincoln County received $1 million to build an elementary school to replace the one condemned in Pioche.

-WON: Gov. Kenny Guinn's Millennium Scholarship will save parents of students with B or better averages up to $2,500 a year toward college tuition. The plan will be paid for by 40 percent of the national tobacco settlement and will begin with seniors in the class of 2000.

-DRAW: A required reading list for Nevada students was shot down. Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, pushed hard to require that school children study the Federalist Papers, George Washington's Farewell Address and the Bill of Rights, among other historical documents. The plan was turned into a non-binding resolution in the Assembly. And the list was expanded to include works by Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Ralph Bunch; Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech; the Seneca Falls Declaration; and discussions of antitrust laws by Theodore Roosevelt.

-DRAW: Insurance lobbyists managed to defeat several mandates for increased insurance coverage, which they say increases premiums for business owners. But three insurance mandates did get through, including coverage for mental illness, birth control and hormone replacement therapy, and coverage of certain cancer medications.