Tuesday, June 7, 2005 | 11:18 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- After failing to complete its business in the 120-day limit, a special session of the Nevada Legislature inched toward adjournment today as lawmakers were ready to approve bills on the Millennium Scholarship, all-day kindergarten and importing prescription drugs from Canada.
When the 1 a.m. deadline for the regular session hit today, there were still critical bills that needed passage for state programs.
Gov. Kenny Guinn agreed to convene a special session after the Legislature failed to complete work on critical bills at its 1 a.m. deadline. In the special session, lawmakers are limited to discussing a small number of bills, the biggest being the scholarship program, all-day kindergarten and the Canadian drug program. All are expected to pass.
The Millennium Scholarship passed the Assembly this morning 36-5 after it was amended to fix an incorrect date in the bill. Because of the amendment, the Senate will now have to vote on the bill again before it goes to the governor.
The special session has been filled with glitches and delays as bills are quickly being processed to reflect the latest agreements. In explaining the delays, Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Las Vegas said, "We got our wires crossed with the governor." He said some of the amendments have been wrong. "Our bills are not correct."
The governor called the special session for four hours starting at 3 a.m. But the houses didn't start meeting until after 4 a.m. and the first bills didn't appear until after 5:50 a.m.
But problems have plagued the session. One bill was delivered with the wrong name of a museum. There were questions on the accuracy of another bill that caused delay.
Then the senators complained that they were being asked to approve bills without reading them. There was another delay to print more bills. Then it was determined they couldn't pass the bills until they received the official proclamation from the governor.
When lawmakers could not complete their business in the special session by 7 a.m. the governor extended the time to 10 a.m. When the lawmakers could not finish, the governor extended the session another two hours to noon.
This Legislature in 2001 and 2003 couldn't finish its business in the allotted time and had to be called into a special session. Since the 120-day limit was enacted by the voters, only the 1999 session met the deadline.
Once untracked the Senate approved bills that could not make the deadline in the regular session. And the Assembly followed suit. But there were continued glitches such as wrong amendments in bills that further delayed the session.
The lawmakers approved Senate Bill 1, a bill that contains $35.8 million for pet projects of the Senate. The Senate then approved Senate Bill 4, which extends the Millennium Scholarship.
Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, said the changes in this bill will extend the life of the program for a decade for students at the universities and community colleges. There were 17,442 students that used the scholarship in the fall of 2004.
And the bill for all-day kindergarten in an estimated 118 schools in fiscal 2007 is ready to clear both houses. This was another project for Democrats who wanted every school to have full-day kindergarten. But this, they say, is a start.
In the closing two hours of the regular session, the Legislature approved more than 50 bills including ones to fund state government, provide money for pay raises for schoolteachers, university personnel and state workers and create a commission on educational excellence as suggested by Guinn.
The snag in completion of the session was a heated face-off between Senate and Assembly over changes to the Millennium Scholarship. After the 1 a.m. deadline passed, Guinn huddled with senators and Assembly members and reached a compromise. He then called the special session.
The bill on Canadian drugs sat in the Senate since June 4 waiting for agreement. It was apparently being held hostage to make sure the Assembly passed certain Senate measures.
But time ran out before the Senate could act. The bill allows the state Board of Pharmacy to license Canadian pharmacies. Nevadans could then order their drugs through the Internet or through mail order.
Drugs from Canada must be approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration. And a person could not order more than a three-month supply.
The Canadian drug issue had strong support from Democrats. While the governor put it on the special session agenda, he declined to say whether he would sign the bill when passed.
Other bills that came before the special session included giving the state Equal Rights Commission more authority to deal with housing discrimination; allocating $400,000 to the Nevada Commission on Sports; and a proposed constitutional amendment to change the procedures on initiatives and referendums.
The constitutional amendment will require that initiative and referendum petitions must be signed by 10 percent of the voters in the three congressional districts. A federal court declared unconstitutional the present requirement of 10 percent of the voters in 13 of the 17 counties. AJR1 will return to the 2007 Legislature and then must be approved by the voters.
There was a major energy conservation bill. Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said Assembly Bill 3 requires state buildings to reduce their energy consumption by 20 percent by 2015. It calls for the adoption of a higher energy efficiency code to be utilized in construction of all state buildings.
The state Public Works Board will do two demonstration projects showing energy efficiency. There is a photovoltaic manufacturing incentive program trying to get manufacturing companies to come to Nevada. There is property tax abatement for companies that build structures to higher energy standards.
"This will save down the road millions and millions of taxpayer dollars," she said.
Another bill calls for the state Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse to be transferred in two years from the state Health Division to the state Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services. It renames the state Department of Human Resources to the Department of Health and Human Services. It gives a new name to the welfare division. It will be called the Division of Welfare and Supportive Services.
The salary of the chairwoman of the state Taxation Commission is being increased to $27,500 and to $20,000 for its members, in another bill.
Guinn said he has been around for 40 years and this was the best Legislature he has seen.
It might have something to do with approval of a major part of his program.
"We had the ability to do things in health, in mental health -- education got focused on in a way we have never been able to do since I have been here," he said.
With a lot of extra money in the state budget, "we were able to do so much more at the university and community college level," Guinn said. The state's building program of more than $410 million is phenomenal, the governor said.
Questioned whether the Legislature could ever complete its business on time, Guinn, said there was a "different kind of a session." He said the lawmakers worked in the early session on the property tax limit bill. After getting that solved, "they let down and then picked up steam," the governor said.
He said that as the state gets bigger there are more problems, which are more complex. And there is stiff competition between lobbyists to get their way.
archive
