More than 250 bills fall victims to first deadline

Wednesday, April 16, 2003 | 10:15 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Schoolteachers are not going to get the right to strike, pro-life advocates won't have their own vehicle license plates and state legislators won't be able to draw both salary and a state pension.

Nevada's death penalty will not be abolished, and landlords will not be required to change entry locks when a new tenant moves in.

Those are just a handful of the results after more than 250 bills failed to meet the first deadline in the Legislature last Friday.

That represents 25 percent of the measures introduced so far this session. Friday was the final day that bills in their respective houses had to emerge from committees or die. Some of the bills were voted down while others died without a vote.

Many of the measures related to tax increases, deductions or exemptions. The Senate and Assembly Taxation committees decided not to act on them, instead saving one bill in each house to formulate a tax proposal.

Those two tax bills are exempt from the deadlines.

Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, said Monday that although bills failed to make the deadline, the ideas included in them can still be revived as amendments to other bills on the same subject.

For example, Senate Bill 217 would have abolished capital punishment, and it died in the Senate Judiciary Committee. But there are Assembly bills alive that prohibit the death penalty for the mentally retarded and change the age of those eligible for execution.

Also, the Assembly Government Affairs Committee did not approve Assembly Bill 66 to raise the pay of county elective officials. But a similar bill will be voted on in the Senate sometime this week.

A look at some of the bills that died:

While more than 250 bills have died, there are still more than 750 pieces of legislation that will be considered before the Legislature ends June 2.

Each house has until April 22 to pass its own bills. But there are numerous exempt measures dealing with spending which won't be considered until the budget is approved at the end of the session.