Halfway point of session marked

Monday, April 4, 2005 | 10:41 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Legislature reaches its halfway point this week with a mountain of work still to be done.

The 60th day of the 120-day session is Thursday and that's when the $130 a day pay for lawmakers ends but their expense accounts continue.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, is hoping to end the session in 118 days.

But since 2000, when voters approved the Constitutional Amendment to limit the session to 120 days, the lawmakers have never met that deadline. A special session had to be called in 2001 to complete the work and two special sessions were convened in 2003 to finish work on the tax increase.

There had been 1,048 bills introduced as of Friday and only 14 have made it to the desk of Gov. Kenny Guinn for signature. There are 555 bills in the Assembly and 493 in the Senate. One of the bills that was signed by Guinn and passed on opening day was for $10 million to start to pay for the session.

The Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee start giving final approval to some budgets on Tuesday, thought they are the minor ones with limited controversy.

Fiscal analysts of the Legislature will also present an up-to-date snapshot of where the money committees are and the possibility of more revenue than anticipated in the next two years.

Approval of the major budgets will come after May 2 when the Economic Forum convenes to estimate how much the state will have in tax collections during the next two years. The lawmakers are banned from exceeding that limit unless they approve tax increases.

Some committees are talking about meeting evenings to process some of the bills. Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, said his Government Affairs Committee would start holding night sessions to get through the bills.

The committees must process the bills introduced in their house by April 15 or they are dead.

While the $130 a day pay ends Thursday, the lawmakers continue to receive $91 per day for the rest of the session as a per-diem allowance plus $6,800 for travel to and rent in Carson City.

Assistant Majority Leader Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, last week urged the Senate Committee on Legislartive Operations and Elections to quickly pass his bill to boost the expense accounts so it could take effect this session.

Senate Bill 311 would set $7,000 as the minimum allowance a lawmaker could receive in the session and the Legislative Commission could set it higher than that. At present there is a maximum of $6,800.

Nolan said expenses of travel and rent have risen and many lawmakers will be out of travel expense money to return home on the weekends this weekend, since Southwest Airlines has eliminated special rates for state officials.

The Senate Finance Committee Monday will hear testimony on Senate Bill 265 to provide a travel allowance for lawmakers between sessions for them to attend public meetings of such groups as city council, county commissions and school boards.

It is sponsored by Sens. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, and Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, to help pay the costs they face traveling through their large districts. It is estimated to cost $180,000 during the next two years.

The finance committee will also hear testimony on Senate Bill 314 by Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, which asks for $220,000 for the Atomic Testing Museum in Lasa Vegas for an educational program.

The money would be used to provide instructional materials for school classroms and allow access to the internet for teachers and pupils at the museum.