New Nevada laws take effect Thursday

Tuesday, June 29, 1999 | 9:30 a.m.

Beginning Thursday, courts will be allowed to accept payment for fines and fees with credit or debit cards. Before AB24 was passed, Nevada residents had to bring cash or pay with a check.

Another consumer measure should make it easier for homeowners with defects in their residences to get the problems fixed quickly.

SB32 was one of the most contentious issues of the 1999 Legislature. The bill requires a new process to fix defects found in homes within a condominium complex or planned community.

SB521, saving Steve Wynn millions in taxes, also will give Nevada residents half-price admission at his Bellagio art gallery in Las Vegas. The current charge is $12.

Drivers will get a break as a result of SB442, which provides for a fine of only $25 and no impact on auto insurance rates for speeding up to 10 mph above posted limits on some highways.

Another traffic-related bill, SB381, bans the use of unmanned cameras, commonly called photo cops, on Nevada roadways to issue traffic citations.

Two education-related panels, one to study funding for higher education and another to examine ways to reduce violence in public schools, can be established as of Thursday.

The higher education study created in SB443 will examine funding formulas used to allocate money among the six campuses of the University and Community College System of Nevada.

Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, sought the review of school violence in AB599 after the April shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

AB597, will make $16 million available to school districts with unsafe schools and no tax base to fix them. Two districts, White Pine and Lincoln, are expected to immediately file applications for the money.

Another education-related measure, AB348, will make it easier for groups to form experimental public charter schools in Nevada.

Also taking effect is a measure sought by Gov. Kenny Guinn to protect the assets of seniors who require long-term care.

Also taking effect on Thursday is a key provision of a measure passed by lawmakers in 1997: opening up job-injury insurance to three-way bidding for employers' premiums.

That will pit Employers Insurance Co. of Nevada, formerly the State Industrial Insurance System, against self-insured groups and private carriers through the rest of 1999. Starting in January 2000, EICON will become a private company, divesting itself from the state in an effort to remain competitive.

Other new laws from the 1999 session include:

-SENIORS: SB370 will allow seniors to buy long-term care insurance to protect assets they have accumulated through the years rather than spend their savings to qualify for Medicaid.

-SPECIAL PROJECTS: Two omnibus bills, one each from the Senate and Assembly providing funding for special projects, also take effect. The two measures, AB703 and SB560, provide $16.6 million in one-shot appropriations to pay for projects ranging from stocking libraries to controlling weeds.

-OMBUDSMAN: As a result of another bill, Gov. Guinn on Thursday will name a cabinet-level health care ombudsman. The office will handle complaints and other worries over services in the fast-growing managed-care industry.

-UTILITY RATES: While the ombudsman's office will take time to get up to speed, another legislative effect will be immediate: a cap on electricity rates starting July 1.

It's part of industry deregulation that, beginning next March, will allow utilities other than Sierra Pacific Power Co. and Nevada Power Co. to vie for Nevadans' business.

Under the new law, the rate cap will be in effect until 2003, when it's hoped the marketplace will be wide open and customers will be on their own.

-LICENSE PLATES. The Department of Motor Vehicles will begin designing a new plate due out next year, but unlike long-standing tradition, lawmakers mandated only that the plate's colors be "predominately blue and silver."

Additionally next year, Nevadans with the coveted old blue plates, issued from 1969 to 1982, will be able to get a new version for a $20 fee and will not have to surrender the old plates.

-LAKE TAHOE: $56 million is available in bonds for erosion control, stream restoration and other projects needed to save the lake and its surroundings.