Legislative briefs for February 17, 2005

Thursday, Feb. 17, 2005 | 9:32 a.m.

Lower juror pay is introduced

The pay for jurors would be cut from $40 per day to $15 a day under a bill introduced by Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora Wednesday.

Rhoads said Senate Bill 65 was requested by Elko County Clerk Win Smith because of several expensive trials in recent years.

The bill, referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, would lower the fee paid a person summoned for jury selection from $40 to $9 for each day he shows up at the courthouse. The travel allowance would be dropped from 36.5 cents per mile to 20 cents per mile for jurors and prospective jurors.

Guinn makes budget changes

The Legislature isn't two weeks old yet but Gov. Kenny Guinn is already revising his budget.

Guinn informed a legislative budget subcommittee Wednesday that he wants to add six more employees to the Veterans Affairs Commission at a cost of $478,354 over the next two years.

He wants to add at least $7 million in aid to public schools budget to handle the rising cost of electricity and natural gas. Electricity is expected to rise 4 percent each year and 8 percent for natural gas, said Deputy Budget Director Andrew Clinger.

Budget officials said there will be other corrections forwarded to the Legislature on the budget.

Initiative petitions to get a new look

Nevada's requirements for initiative petitions have been declared unconstitutional by a federal court, and Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, is making a stab at correcting the problem.

Nevada's Constitution now requires that an initiative petition be signed by at least 10 percent of the voters who cast a ballot in the last general election in at least 75 percent, or 13, of the 17 counties.

The federal court declared the requirement that the signatures be gathered in the 13 counties was unconstitutional because it gave more weight to the signatures of voters from small counties compared to those gathered in Las Vegas and Reno.

Senate Joint Resolution 3, introduced Wednesday and referred to the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee, would require initiative petitions to gather signatures of registered voters equal to 4 percent of the population in each of the 40 Assembly districts.

Rhoads said his proposal would mean those circulating initiative petitions would have to gather about the same number of signatures as are now required. But they would have to visit every Assembly district.

He said he didn't want those backing the initiatives to gather them all on a street corner in Las Vegas.