Wednesday, July 18, 2001 | 10:48 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The law is the law, unless a Supreme Court ruling allows the governor to void his signature on it by signing a version more to his liking.
That's what happened Tuesday, as the head-spinning end to the 2001 Legislature had one more surprise in store.
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that bills passed after the Legislature's June 4 deadline were legal, ending doubt about their status that has persisted since the 2001 Legislature ended in a mass of confusion.
So Gov. Kenny Guinn was able to sign a version of Assembly Bill 460, giving the state a greater share of the car rental tax, that had passed after midnight and that lacked a nagging amendment attached by Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas.
The amendment would have created legislative oversight of the Transportation Department, a job that Guinn argues belongs to him.
O'Donnell was stunned by Tuesday's turn of events.
The senator said Guinn's original signature on the bill containing the amendment for the legislative oversight committee should stand.
"It's incredible this guy is getting away with this," O'Donnell said. "It defies imagination."
But Guinn, in a small office ceremony Tuesday afternoon, was only too happy to sign bills in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision. He called special attention to the moment.
"This has never happened before," Guinn said. "We're making history."
The bills approved by Guinn were:
AB460 has a tortured history.
Introduced by Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, it called for the auto rental companies to give up what they had been considering their share of the tax they collected from customers. That amounts to about $26 million over the two years. That money, considered crucial by Guinn, will go toward bonuses for schoolteachers.
During the closing hours of the Legislature, the Assembly accepted O'Donnell's Senate amendment to create of a legislative oversight committee for the Transportation Department.
O'Donnell said Tuesday there have been problems at the agency for 15 years, and his amendment would have permitted the legislative committee to "vent our frustrations" and to pass on to the department the complaints of the public.
The fourth version of the auto rental bill, with the oversight committee amendment attached, was passed before the midnight deadline and sent to the governor. Then the Assembly changed its mind and a fifth version of the bill was passed after midnight, eliminating the legislative committee.
Legislative Counsel Brenda Erdoes refused to transmit the bills passed after midnight to the governor because of the question of legality.
Because he desperately needed the rental-car tax money for his budget, Guinn signed the fourth version of the bill but said he would sue to have the new legislative committee declared unconstitutional. His point was that overseeing departments is the job of the executive branch of state government, not the legislative.
The three bills that Guinn signed Tuesday were also introduced at a special session of the Legislature on June 14. But they failed to pass.
So the versions of the bills that cleared the Legislature between midnight June 4 and 1 a.m. June 5 were in limbo until Tuesday's Supreme Court decision, which enabled Guinn to sign the Assembly's fifth version of AB460, the one without O'Donnell's amendment.
O'Donnell said his oversight committee was not meant as an affront to Guinn. The problems at the Transportation Department have been going on for a long time, he said.
The senator, noting that Guinn objects to the Legislature interfering with executive responsibilities, asked: "Why is he meddling with the legislative branch?"
The bills were presented to the special session of the Legislature but all three died because Assembly Republicans were unhappy about a reapportionment bill in which they would lose seats. They refused to vote for any of the three bills, meaning there would not be the two-thirds majority vote needed for passage. A two-thirds vote was needed because the bills involved fee changes.
The Nevada Constitution says the Legislature must end business at midnight Pacific Standard Time after 120 days in session. That occurred at midnight June 4. But there was a time change during the session, putting the state on Pacific Daylight Saving Time.
The lawmakers, who could not complete their business on time, decided they had an extra hour to finish up their work. So more than 20 bills were passed between midnight and 1 a.m. June 5.
The bills were placed on the agenda of the special session of the Legislature to clear up any legal question. Three measures, however, never cleared the special session but are now law because of the Supreme Court decision.
Guinn said one of the benefits of the energy bill that he signed is that it creates a fund to help low-income families pay their energy bills. AB661 includes a section where a surcharge is imposed on each electric customer according to his or her use.
This is expected to raise about $10 million a year to go into a fund that gives rebates to these individuals. The fund, operated by the state Welfare Division, has received $3.4 million from the federal government this year and the Legislature chipped in another $4 million.
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