Legislative briefs for June 6, 2005

Monday, June 6, 2005 | 10:42 a.m.

Measure toughens teen standards

A bill making it tougher for teens to get licensed to drive has cleared the Legislature, with the Senate and Assembly adopting a conference report that increases the age from 15 to 16 to qualify for a driver's license.

Assembly Bill 52 requires a teen to have at least 50 hours of supervised driving, including 10 hours at night.

Existing law prohibits a teen from transporting anybody under 18 for 30 to 90 days, depending on the age of the driver. AB 52, to become effective Oct. 1, puts that restriction up to 90 days for all drivers. Violation of this prohibition is not a moving traffic violation or grounds for suspension or revocation of the license.

Before the Senate adopted the conference report, Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, objected to the 90 days' restriction. She wanted a six months prohibition, saying it would have saved some of the youngsters killed in a Green Valley crash last year.

Cegavske and Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, voted against accepting the conference report. The bill goes to the governor.

Cabbies prohibited from payoffs

Cabdrivers would be prohibited from accepting payoffs from businesses for taking customers to those businesses, under a bill approved by the Legislature Sunday.

The payoff measure was added to Assembly Bill 505, approved by the Senate and Assembly, that abolishes the Transportation Services Agency and puts limousines, tow trucks and cabs outside of Clark County under the jurisdiction of the state Public Service Commission.

A Senate-Assembly conference committee worked out differences on the bill.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, said the conference committee included a section that cabdrivers cannot accept a "gratuity" from a business for bringing that passenger to that particular business.

Nolan said this was aimed in part at brothels, mostly in Northern Nevada, that give a cabdriver a payoff for bringing in customers.

Assembly OKs pay raises

The governor and other top elected officials will get a raise after the next election, under Assembly Bill 462, which goes to Gov. Kenny Guinn for his signature.

The new governor's salary will rise from the current $117,000 to $141,000; lieutenant governor goes from $50,000 to $60,000; the secretary of state, controller and treasurer from $80,000 to $97,000 each and the attorney general from $110,000 to $133,000.

The Senate approved AB462 on Sunday.

The pay of legislators, now at $130 a day for the first 60 days of the session, would go up equal to the percentage increase given to state workers in a two-year period. Because state workers are going to receive a 2 percent increase next fiscal year and then 4 percent in fiscal 2007, legislators elected in November 2006 would receive a 6 percent pay increase.

Voting against the bill in the Senate were Las Vegas Senators Bob Beers and Joe Heck, both Republicans, and Democrats Terry Care, Valerie Wiener and Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus.

New judge positions approved

Clark County is to get four new District Court judges in January 2007 under Senate Bill 195, which passed Sunday without opposition.

The bill provides $335,000 in state money to pay the salary of the new judges from January 2007 until July.

In prior legislation, the Legislature is putting $1 million a year into a fund to pay retired judges to return to hear cases.

Bankruptcy bill sent to Guinn

A bill to increase the homestead protection in bankruptcy cases has been approved by the Legislature. Assembly Bill 365 increases from $200,000 to $350,000 the amount of equity in a home that is shielded in bankruptcy proceedings.

The original bill called for an exemption of $400,000, but the Assembly set it at $300,000. A conference committee hit on $350,000. The Senate and Assembly adopted the committee report and sent the bill on to Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Increase in bond limit OK'd

The Senate gave final legislative approval Saturday to a bill to allow the Board of Regents to increase the amount of revenue bonds that can be issued at the various campuses of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Before passage, the Senate rejected an amendment by Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, to eliminate a $55 million revenue bond for a recreation center at UNLV.

Beers said this project would cost each student $207 to retire the bonds. In addition, he said UNLV has said it was landlocked and it should keep what land it has for classrooms, not a recreation center.

A student council approved the plan, Beers said, but there was no vote by the student body. He complained that the cost would also have to be paid by students who don't even want to use the center.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the matter should be determined by the regents. He said the current student fees are comparable to those in other Western states.

The amendment was rejected on a voice vote. Assembly Bill 534 was then approved unanimously and sent to Gov. Kenny Guinn.

The bill includes the authorization to issue $20 million in revenue bonds to finance a parking garage at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

Senate rejects cab camera rule

A proposed regulation governing the installation of cameras and audio systems in taxicabs in Clark County was formally rejected by the Senate Saturday.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, offered an amendment to Senate Concurrent Resolution 42 that would have permitted the regulation by the Taxicab Authority to go into effect. But the amendment was defeated in a voice vote.

He called the proposed regulation reasonable and the only opposition was over installing audio to pick up the conversations of the passengers.

But Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, objected to the Nolan amendment. He said the process is for the Legislative Commission to reject those proposed regulations that are not in the best interest of the state. After the Legislative Commission rejected the regulation, the Taxicab Authority never rewrote the rule to submit for approval, he said.

NLV voters will decide on change

Voters in North Las Vegas will decide in November 2006 whether their council members should be elected by the residents of the district in which they live or at large by the whole city as is now the case.

The Assembly earlier in the session passed a bill to require that the North Las Vegas council members run for election in their own districts that they represent, rather than facing all of the voters of North Las Vegas. But after North Las Vegas officials opposed that change, the bill died in the Senate Government Affairs Committee. The Assembly than tacked the ward provision into Senate Bill 20, and the compromise was reached.

Plan to increase minimum wage dies

The plan by Assembly Democrats to grant an immediate increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $6.15 an hour is dead. So voters in November 2006 will decide on a proposed constitutional amendment to raise the wage and also give employees in private business a cost of living increase every year up to $3.

Voters in 2004 overwhelmingly approved the proposal.

The Assembly passed Assembly Bill 87 to make the wage increase effective in October this year rather than waiting for voter approval in November 2006. The Republican controlled Senate amended AB87 to boost the minimum wage to $6.40 an hour and also had this on the ballot. It did not include a cost of living increase every year.

A Senate-Assembly conference committee Saturday could not reach a compromise so AB87 died.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said the voters spoke "quite clearly" in 2004 in approving the plan. She said the refusal of the Senate "flies in the face" of the voters.

Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, said the automatic escalation of wages every year will have an impact on employers who may not hire as many people. There is only a minimum of workers who are earning the minimum wage now, he said.

He said he hopes business will mount an information campaign to tell the voters of the "negative consequences" of the automatic cost of living increase every years.

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