LOOKING IN ON: CARSON CITY

Thursday, April 19, 2007 | 6:54 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Newly purchased hybrid vehicles may be exempt for five years from smog checks in Clark and Washoe counties under a plan being reviewed by the Senate Finance Committee.

But the bill's sponsor has withdrawn his proposal to give a break on emission testing to all new cars.

Emissions testing is more complicated for hybrid vehicles, which are powered by a combination of electricity and gasoline, than for cars and trucks that run on gasoline only.

"It's hard to test the hybrid. You have to run the battery down before you can test the gas," Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, said.

Tom Jacobs of the Department of Motor Vehicles said 1,336 hybrid vehicles were registered last fiscal year in Nevada, a number expected to grow to 2,138 this year and 3,421 in fiscal 2008.

Coffin said hybrids purchased earlier "would still have to be smogged." If his bill passes, vehicles purchased this year would be exempt for five years.

Senate Bill 161, as originally introduced, would have exempted all new vehicles from smog testing for three years, instead of the current two years.

"We have the data that show for seven or eight years of a car's life we have a failure rate of less than 2 percent," Coffin said, referring to excessive emissions.

The study by the DMV showed the smog-test failure rate last year of 2003- 06 models was below 2 percent, while 2.9 percent of 2002 models did not pass the test last year in Clark and Washoe counties. The failure rate increases as vehicles age. For instance, 10.2 percent of 1997 cars did not pass the smog test last year in the two counties.

Coffin, however, decided against extending the period in which new cars do not need smog checks, partly because of concerns among Clark County air pollution officials that the change would harm air quality.

Assembly Democrats have approved a bill that would give more than 15,000 state employees collective bargaining rights - but bypassed their own rules in doing so.

Moreover, the bill faces a hurdle in the Senate.

The state workers are the only governmental unit in Nevada without collective bargaining.

Assembly Bill 601 would give them the right to join organizations that would negotiate salary, benefits and working conditions. It was approved 28-14 with one Republican - Pete Goicoechea of Eureka - joining in the majority.

The budget office estimated it would cost Nevada more than $700,000 over the next two years to finance negotiators, travel and other related expenses.

Any bill with a reported expenditure normally goes to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. But the committee's chairman, Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, waived the requirement that his panel consider the bill, calling the budget office estimate a "faade" designed to slow the measure.

AB601 would allow bargaining units to be formed to negotiate on behalf of state workers. After an agreement for higher salaries or more benefits, the governor would be required to include those items in his message to the Legislature. But the Legislature would not be obligated to pass the recommendations.

The bill faces long odds in the Senate. In the last legislative session, the Assembly twice passed similar measures, but the proposals never got a hearing before the Senate Government Affairs Committee.

Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, the committee's chairman, said he and his panel have not changed their stance in opposition to the bill.