The four Northern Nevada colleges and universities in the Nevada System of Higher Education would receive less money during the next two years, according to the new higher education funding formula plan legislators approved Saturday.
Lawmakers killed a bill earlier this year that would’ve made the Blue Weimaraner the state dog, but Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, now has a measure to make the Basque alcoholic beverage Picon Punch the official state drink.
NV Energy’s plan to shut down coal plants in Nevada moved forward today with strong support from some of Nevada’s most influential politicians and business interests.
Advocates for medical marijuana argued Nevada could bring in $10 million to $30 million a year for state coffers if lawmakers approve a bill to create a dispensary system.
Former Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa is leading a coalition to defeat a major piece of energy legislation pushed by NV Energy that would create a plan to divest from coal and launch a massive project to build renewable energy plants instead.
Legislators today recommended shifting money from northern colleges to southern colleges almost immediately, rejecting Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposal to phase in the cuts to rural college budgets.
When Senate Democrats on Monday released details of a tax increase they say is needed to adequately fund education, they swung a partisan hammer that shattered the patina of cooperation that had dominated this legislative session.
Gov. Brian Sandoval said today he opposes and would veto two Democratic tax plans that would hike payroll taxes and implement new taxes on consumers for entertainment and admissions to movies, gyms, and other businesses.
The deal involves transferring several million dollars to UNLV, the College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State College while also providing temporary funding to rural community colleges that will offset planned reductions to funding at those institutions.
The popular image of lobbyists involves polished representatives of large corporations, plying their influence for the benefit of mining, gaming, retailers and labor unions. But you’re paying for lobbyists, too.
It’s no secret that full-time lobbyists wield influence at the Nevada Legislature. But far from the cliches of crooked politicians making quid pro quo deals with cigar-smoking lobbyists, the official tally for influence amounts to $93,000 worth of expenditures during the first two months of the legislative session, with many lobbyists reporting $0 in wining and dining expenses.
As lawmakers debated whether mining pays its fair share in taxes at the Legislature, advocates on either side of the issue took to Twitter to argue the merits of the bill. We parse their facts here.
Movie star Nicolas Cage traveled to Carson City today to urge state lawmakers to pass a movie tax incentive bill, promising to use his connections in the industry to help spark a filmmaking boom in Nevada if the measure becomes law. “My name is Nicolas Cage, and I’m an American filmmaker,” Cage told lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee, who put away their laptops and phones to listen to his testimony.
Sen. Michael Roberson released details of his proposal to double taxes on Nevada’s mining industry. The bill would compete on the 2014 ballot with a business margins tax that the state teachers union backs.
Legislators are pushing a bill that would remove loopholes from Nevada’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, which mandates that 25 percent of Nevada’s energy will come from renewable sources by 2025. Loopholes are provisions allowing energy companies such as NV Energy to meet the standard through measures other than actual renewable energy production.
For years, observers have noted how the state seems to operate a hypothetical conveyer belt that redistributes southern wealth northward in a way that favors northern road construction, schools and universities. At the same time, some northern lawmakers are certain they’re donating to the south.
Senate Bill 483 extends current 2.5 percent salary reductions until June 30, 2015, but Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget director Jeff Mohlenkamp told a legislative committee Saturday that the administration may amend the bill to make those salary reductions permanent.
The mining industry came out today in opposition to a plan to remove the industry’s provisions in the state constitution. While the industry remained neutral with concerns during 2011 and during debate in the state Senate this year, they now emphatically oppose Senate Joint Resolution 15.
Nevada’s persistently poor public school funding may be putting the state at risk for a lawsuit. Advocates, upset with the incremental process of the Legislature when it comes to funding education, plan to meet to discuss litigation strategy.
Nevadans of every political stripe have cheered NV Energy’s plan to eject itself from the coal business. They envision unemployed Nevadans back to work, laboring under clear, blue skies; dismantling dirty coal plants and installing new solar panels; guaranteeing Nevada’s energy independence for years to come. The state’s regulators, however, are hoping legislators will stop daydreaming and heed their warnings about Senate Bill 123, the utility’s “NVision” plan.
If uttering the magic word “discussion” brought gifts of wealth and riches, Nevada’s Democratic leaders would have already delivered state government money by the truckload. But for all the talk, legislators are entering the homestretch of the legislative session with no sweeping tax reform measures to speak of.
When asked about policy positions, the fallback position of the governor’s staff is to either decline to delineate a position or point to the transcript of Sandoval’s 2013 speech to the Legislature.
Nevada’s health department today reversed its practice of sending patients discharged from state psychiatric hospitals alone on bus trips out of Nevada.
Tuesday was a big day for scores of bills in the Nevada Legislature — a day when measures died or traveled to the opposite house, where they may encounter more hostile territory for their second round of hearings.
Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson plans to unveil the details of a mining tax proposal he hopes to put on the ballot as an alternative to the margins tax initiative.
Mark Bird, a College of Southern Nevada sociology professor, recently taught a class in which he and his students sought to do more than complain. They brainstormed 35 solutions to “enhance the state.”
In the past month, Gov. Brian Sandoval has found another $77.7 million for his $6.5 billion budget. But much of the new money for education and social programs is flowing to Nevada because of continued economic distress.
While Congress and several state Legislatures have recently held contentious and much-debated votes on gun control legislation, Nevada’s legislative leaders have largely kept quiet, leaving it to one freshman senator to carry the issue.
Since a mentally ill man from Las Vegas turned up in Sacramento on a Greyhound bus earlier this year, the state’s health department has disciplined employees involved in the man’s release, changed hospital policy and asked for a federal review of their practices.
NV Energy’s powerful lobbying corps has quietly tried to muster wide support for a major energy proposal at the Legislature, but the choreographed show it hoped to premiere to legislators didn’t go quite as planned.
Fairness may be in the eye of the beholder, but some eyes are more equal than others at the Nevada Legislature. This year’s legislative session again features a number of ideas and proposals that would send state money sluicing south from Carson City to Clark County.
Unless something changes at the Legislature, some parents will have to pay $3,200 for their child’s full-day kindergarten class in the Clark County School District next school year. At the same time, other parents won’t have to pay to send their children to full-day kindergarten in the district.
Bills lacking the athleticism to sprint past today’s deadline for committee passage die a cold death of neglect, never to see a vote on the floor or life in the opposite house.
Gov. Brian Sandoval said this week that he’s against the decriminalization of marijuana for recreational use, but he’s open to seeing a proposal for dispensaries for medical marijuana. “I don’t support the decriminalization of marijuana,” the Republican governor said Tuesday after a meeting at the Capitol.
NV Energy surprised the nation last week with an announcement that it’s divesting from coal and investing in natural gas and renewable energy. While many applauded the move away from coal, the announcement also spurred criticism that it would precipitously raise rates.
NV Energy made waves last week with a major legislative amendment that called for divesting from coal and investing in renewable energy and natural gas. The amendment left some wondering why the proposal was before the Legislature at all.
Maybe it was the procedural hijinks that redirected a priority bill to a friendly committee. Maybe it was when he plopped a surprise mining tax proposal in the laps of lawmakers; Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson has been a thorn in the side of the Democratic majority since the start of the legislative session.
March Madness in Nevada wasn’t just for basketball. Last month, the state’s top two education officials left their jobs in the middle of the legislative session.
For most embroiled in the thick of the ongoing legislative session in the capital, Thursday was a day to celebrate. The halfway point. Day 60. The light at the end of the 120-day tunnel is that much nearer. (Well, we hope, anyway. Voters did happen to give lawmakers the power to call themselves into special session, so who knows.) At the halfway point, bills are slowly winding their way through the process, with the bulk of the work still remaining in the committees assigned to give legislation a first work through.
Nevada’s utility company delivered Wednesday what appears to be a gift to the community. NV Energy told state lawmakers at a hearing at the Legislature that it wants to divest from the coal business, reduce carbon emissions, invest in renewable energy and natural gas, and create thousands of jobs in Nevada. It even has a nice bow on top: The company says it can accomplish all this at minimal cost to ratepayers. But a broad array of stakeholders who endorsed the look of the gift reserved the right to inspect its contents before voicing more full-throated support.
A new initiative unveiled today by NV Energy calls for a major shift from unpopular and increasingly expensive coal production to cleaner types of energy. But at what price? The Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection says that rates would rise precipitously under NV Energy’s proposal to replace its coal plants.