Lawmakers say they’ll finish session on time

Kirsten Searer

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 | 11:19 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Legislature missed its first major deadline Monday, when staff members failed to complete drafts of the more than 1,000 bills that will see light in this legislative session.

But legislative leaders said they still believe they will finish this year's session on time.

Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said he hopes to catch up in the coming weeks and meet the Legislature's self-imposed 120-day deadline, which would end the session on June 6.

"We'll get it done in 118 (days), as long as the Senate doesn't hold us up," Perkins said.

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, said the session can finish on time if the heads of committees institute time limits when people testify on bills.

"There is a real impetus for us to finish this session in 120 days," he said.

The Assembly and Senate did hold marathon floor sessions on Monday, introducing 117 bills in the Assembly and 50 bills in the Senate.

But staff members are still toiling over the language in hundreds of legislator-submitted bills submitted, which now must be introduced by the end of the week.

The last-minute push for bills Monday yielded an assorted crop in the Assembly, from a measure to impose state taxes on legal prostitution to a bill that would give consumers a tax-free day during back-to-school shopping.

The Senate saw everything from a bill allowing home schooled children to participate in interscholastic athletics to an overhaul of the initiative petition process.

A bill sponsored by Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, advances an idea pushed by Democratic leaders that would create a rainy-day fund for disasters such as the recent floods in Mesquite.

And Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, introduced his bill that would ban high school classes from starting before 8 a.m.

Bills sponsored by committees are scheduled to be introduced by next Tuesday, a deadline that Legislative Counsel Bureau director Lorne Malkiewich said he thinks his office can meet.

Malkiewich said, however, that April could prove challenging for legislators and staff members hoping to catch up to their time table.

"April is the cruelest month," he said, quoting T.S. Elliot.

Malkiewich said staff members are backed up on writing bills because of the debate over how to curb rising property taxes, the impeachment of Controller Kathy Augustine and the retirement of one of the Legislature Counsel Bureau's key bill writers.

Of the more than two dozen attorneys working to draft bills based on legislator and committee requests, some have been leaving at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. and returning to work at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m., Malkiewich said.

"They are hitting the wall, though," Malkiewich said. "There's only so many hours you can work."

The staff realized at about 10 p.m. Sunday that they wouldn't meet the Monday deadline, he said.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said delaying the deadline until Friday "seems doable." He asked senators to drop requests for bills they thought were not essential.

Raggio said he also hopes to meet future deadlines, even if it means committees would have to meet during the evenings or on Saturdays.

Sun reporter Cy Ryan contributed to this report.