Proposal for annual legislative sessions gains little support

By Cy Ryan

Thursday, April 28, 2011 | 4:01 p.m.

CARSON CITY – A proposal to hold annual sessions of the Legislature and to fatten the pocketbooks of lawmakers in the future has drawn little support in an Assembly committee.

Committee Chairman Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, said he has his “toe in the water” but concedes he has work to do to convince other Assembly members to support Assembly Joint Resolution 2.

On an upbeat note, Segerblom, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections, said after the hearing Thursday, “No one opposed it.” But none of the committee members rushed to endorse the plan, either.

The Legislature meets every other year for 120 days, the lawmakers are paid for 60 days and are limited to $60 per session for expenses for such things as postage, newspapers and stationary.

A special session of the Legislature is limited to 20 days and lawmakers draw their salary during that time.

The proposal, in its initial form, calls for a 90-day session in odd-numbered years and a 6-day session in even-numbered years. Lawmakers would be paid for every day they are in session and the limit on the expense account would be scrapped.

Assembly Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, said he thinks the state is headed toward annual sessions. But Assemblyman Tom Grady, R-Yerington, said voters rejected by a 70-30 percent margin a plan to raise the pay of lawmakers.

“I would hate to go out there and campaign on this,” he said.

The proposal would have to be passed by this Legislature and the 2013 session, and then approved by voters in 2014.

Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, and Assembly Majority Leader Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, didn't express an opinion on the proposed constitutional amendment.

Segerblom suggested two possible amendments. One called for a 60-day session in odd-numbered years and 30 days in even-numbered years. Legislators would be paid for every day they are in session.

After the meeting, Segerblom said “annual sessions would be helpful.”

A second possible amendment suggests that a legislative day count only when one house held a floor session. It suggests that the Legislature meet 75 legislative days out of 100 in odd-numbered years. Legislative days would be 30 out of 45 calendar days in even numbered years.

This would permit lawmakers to take time off so staff could catch up with work, Segerblom said.

Legislators now earn $146 daily for the first 60 days of the regular session and for 20 days of a special session. The proposed constitutional amendment would create a committee to decide the level of pay for lawmakers.

The start of the sessions in all of the plans would be pushed back from February to March. “Everybody is still wet behind the ears in February,” Segerblom said.