Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Legislative briefs for May 28, 2003

School bus driver training bill OK'd

A bill that would require increased training to help school bus drivers deal with disruptive students and certify them in CPR was approved by the Senate Tuesday and sent to the Assembly.

Senate Bill 320 would require school officials to adopt regulations for the evacuation of students with disabilities from school buses in a crisis.

The bill, approved 21-0, would require the increase of training from 10 to 20 hours for operating the bus and from 10 to 20 hours for other facets of the job, including handling unruly students.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the Clark County School District said it would need $100,000 for the additional training. But he said other districts did not show they needed extra money to comply.

Senate approves change in pay

A century-old section in the Nevada Constitution may be on its way out.

The Senate Tuesday voted 18-3 to amend the Constitution to eliminate the requirement that lawmakers can be paid only for 60 days. The Legislature is now in session for 120 days and receives its $135 a day only for the first half of the session.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said that limit has been in the Constitution since 1864, when the public was concerned that lawmakers would stretch out the session in order to collect extra pay.

Senate Joint Resolution 11 would also repeal the obsolete section that legislators are entitled only to $60 for their stamps, newspapers and stationery. Raggio also said that was archaic.

Voting against the resolution, which goes to the Assembly, were Las Vegas Democrats Dina Titus, Valerie Wiener and Terry Care.

It would have to pass this session and the 2005 Legislature, then be ratified in 2006 by the voters before it becomes effective.

Lamb Park bill goes to Guinn

The Legislature completed action Tuesday on a bill that would allow Las Vegas to acquire Floyd Lamb State Park from the state Parks Division.

The Senate agreed with a minor Assembly amendment to Senate Bill 444 and sent it to Gov. Kenny Guinn for his signature.

This will permit the negotiations between the city and state to proceed. The bill, however, prohibits the city from changing the name of the park, unless it gets approval from the Legislature.

Las Vegas would have to agree to protect the historical and recreational value of the property, guarantee public access and ensure that the property is used only for passive recreation as opposed to softball or other sports activities.

The state acquired the former Tule Springs Ranch park from Las Vegas when the city ran into financial troubles about 20 years ago.

Houses at odds over malpractice

The Senate and the Assembly are at odds over the latest version of a bill aimed at easing the medical malpractice problems faced by Southern Nevada doctors.

The Senate Tuesday refused to agree to the Assembly version of Senate Bill 97, and the issue will have to be settled in a conference committee.

The bill the Assembly passed last week raises the limit of non-economic -- or pain and suffering -- damages a patient can receive in a malpractice case and places the measure on the November ballot for a vote.

The present law limits those damages to $350,000. SB97 would raise that to $500,000 in cases involving such classes as senior citizens, children and stay-at-home parents.

SB97 also would require an investigation by the state Board of Medical Examiners into doctors who had three or more medical malpractice cases filed against them in the preceding seven years and would reinstate the medical-legal screening panel to weed out frivolous lawsuits and would provide patients more choices of doctors.

SB97, in its present form, would appear as a question on the November ballot next year, competing against an initiative petition supported by Southern Nevada doctors that would impose a strict $350,000 cap on non-economic damages.

The ballot issue that got the most votes would become law.

Fee hikes OK'd for documents

A bill that would increase fees for birth and death certificates and raise about $300,000 a year for the state was approved by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee today.

The committee also approved another bill that encourages Clark County to create a mental health court.

Assembly Bill 550 says that the state will be able to charge $13 for a certified copy of a birth record, up from $11. The fee for a death record goes from $9 to $10. The money collected has been included in the budget.

Assembly Bill 238, as amended by the committee, encourages the District Court in Clark County to create a mental health court. Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said Clark County "has been a little slow in getting on the band wagon" for a mental health court.

One is already established in Reno. The mental health court in Southern Nevada would be financed by money collected in the $7 assessment charged those convicted of misdemeanors.

Both bills go to the floor of the Assembly.

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