Scores of bills introduced on final day

Brendan Riley

Tuesday, March 23, 1999 | 10:10 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Nearly 100 bills were introduced Monday in the Nevada Legislature, the last day for proposals to be submitted by committees in the Senate and Assembly.

By the end of the day, the bill total for both houses, since the session began Feb. 1, stood at 1,225. That's 58 more than the total for the entire 169-day 1997 session.

Monday's measures included similar Senate and Assembly bills that could give some major Nevada casinos leverage in their battle with slot manufacturers over profits from popular machines such as Megabucks and Quartermania.

While the resorts like the measure, the slot manufacturers may have an ally in Gov. Kenny Guinn. Pete Ernaut, his top aide, said Monday the governor "has little appetite to referee internecine warfare."

A new Senate measure would repeal a tax break on public displays of fine art. The tax exemption was passed during the 1997 legislative session at the request of casino mogul Steve Wynn, who furnished his Bellagio resort with more than $300 million worth of fine art.

In the Assembly, Democrats introduced their answer to Guinn's "Millennium Scholarship" program.

The Assembly plan calls for spending only 25 percent of the $48 million that Nevada expects a national tobacco settlement. The governor wants to spent half the money on scholarships. Unlike Guinn's plan, the Assembly proposal would make students from wealthy families ineligible.

Another new measure, from Senate Judiciary, would prohibit children from being in arcades after 10 p.m. during the week. Judiciary also proposed a revision of a statewide registry of sex offenders.

Also introduced was a Senate bill to revise the state employees' health insurance program - which has run far into the red, partly as a result of mismanagement by a company that once had the contract for the program.

Another Senate bill proposes changes for the state Ethics Commission. The plan is the commission's own version, and differs from another plan to change the panel that is being pushed by Guinn.

Other proposals included an Assembly bill authorizing a study of fire ants; a bill to end a ban on hiring former convicts at health care facilities; and a measure to let people provide psychological services to prisoners without a license.

The only bills that can be introduced now are a handful of measures allotted to Senate and Assembly leadership. The bill restrictions were among various rules aimed at ensuring the lawmakers complete their work by the end of May. Voters decided last November that the session must adjourn by then.