Legislative briefs for April 7, 2003

Monday, April 7, 2003 | 9:12 a.m.

Public vote sought on fireworks sales

Voters would get to decide whether the state should permit fireworks sales, under a bill that passed the Assembly on Friday.

Assembly Bill 328 requires the secretary of state to submit an advisory question to voters concerning the regulation of the sale and use of fireworks in all counties statewide. Many, but not all, counties already regulate fireworks.

Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, who sponsored the bill, said Nevada is the last state whose voters have not decided a fireworks question.

"It's a public safety measure and the public should have their say," Chowning said.

The measure passed 40-2, with Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, and Dawn Gibbons, R-Reno, in opposition. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.

AG rejects claim against budget

Attorney General Brian Sandoval said Friday that a Republican activist's attempt to investigate the governor's budget process has no basis under state law.

Sandoval was responding to a requested investigation submitted by Las Vegas business owner Dan Burdish.

Burdish asked Sandoval to investigate whether Guinn was violating state law by proposing a budget with spending increases of 21 percent from fiscal year 2003 to fiscal year 2004, despite 11 percent population growth and inflation.

"Simply put, Mr. Burdish has accused the governor's budget office of a criminal violation of the law with an unconsidered attempt to link NRS 353.205, a civil statute, to a criminal violation, which simply cannot be done," Sandoval said in a prepared statement.

Sandoval also said the governor has been given much statutory latitude with regard to budget calculations.

Moral clause falls in pharmacy bill

Socially conservative Assembly members failed in an attempt to amend a pharmacy bill to allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions based on their moral or religious beliefs.

Assembly Bill 144 originally would have prohibited employers of pharmacies from disciplining pharmacists who refused to fill prescriptions.

Earlier this week the bill was amended on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Reno, which had complained about a Carson City pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription for a contraceptive.

The amendment requires pharmacists to fill prescriptions as written unless they are fraudulent or the medicine is not in stock.

Assemblyman Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill again to state that pharmacists must fill prescriptions unless doing so conflicted with their moral or religious beliefs.

Hardy's amendment failed and the measure then passed 26-16, largely along party lines with Democrats in support and Republicans opposed.

The exceptions were Republicans Bob Beers of Las Vegas, Dawn Gibbons of Reno, Jason Geddes of Reno and Lynn Hettrick of Gardnerville, who voted for the measure, and Democrats Kelvin Atkinson of North Las Vegas, Jerry Claborn of Las Vegas and Bob McCleary of North Las Vegas, who voted against it.

Death penalty for terrorism proposed

A bill that would attach the potential of the death penalty to acts of terrorism is expected to be considered in the Senate.

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 38 that states first-degree murder includes a killing during an act of terrorism. This would be an aggravating circumstance when a jury considers whether to impose the death penalty.

The measure makes it a crime to manufacture, possess or transport weapons of mass destruction including biological, chemical and radioactive agents.

Terrorism is defined at an act of undeclared war or an act of sabotage, or violence aimed at intimidating or coercing a civilian population, or disrupting the policy of government, or retaliating against government, or causing widespread panic or civil unrest.