NV Energy will roll out a major policy initiative Wednesday, announcing that it will shutter its coal-fired plants, increase investment in renewable energy and create thousands of construction jobs over the next 12 years.
Nevada’s teachers union can breathe a sigh of relief tonight because the secretary of state has put the damper on a Republican alternative to their tax proposal.
State employees will no longer have to take unpaid furlough days, starting in July 2014, Gov. Brian Sandoval said. The governor’s original budget had provided for decreasing furlough days from six to three per year for the next two years.
Usually it’s not the Republican who calls for more government. But Sen. Michael Roberson, R-Henderson, has proposed adding another layer of government oversight over the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
In searching for more revenue, the Legislature could look at tax expenditures — the money the state could spend but chooses to give away in the form of exemptions, tax breaks, and abatements. But no such report is generated in Nevada.
Jim Guthrie announced his resignation as Nevada superintendent overseeing the state's 17 school districts on Friday. Guthrie — whose ideas surrounding class size reduction sparked controversy — did not explain his reason for leaving.
Delinquent children have a better shot at reform when they’re closer to their families, schools and communities, state officials say. But to be able to bring some of Clark County’s incarcerated youth closer to home, the state is considering a deal that would mean incarcerating children from outside Nevada — a somewhat ironic twist on the goal of rehabilitating youthful offenders.
Through gut-wrenching tears Nevada lawmakers brought a conclusion to the at-times frightening saga that has gripped the Nevada Legislature for two months, voting Thursday to oust one of their own.
Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., called for pragmatic, reasonable solutions to problems facing the nation and Nevada in a speech he delivered to the state Legislature Thursday evening.
Nevada’s mining industry got blasted this afternoon during a testy hearing at the Nevada Legislature. Mining lobbyists presented to seven state senators their reasons that it’s a “mistake” to pass Senate Joint Resolution 15.
What other industry could accomplish an ironclad constitutional tax protection but the all-powerful mining industry with its legions of lobbyists at the Legislature who peddle influence and cram campaign coffers full of cash come election season? Turns out there are some.
There may be very few times that six elected officials surround themselves with pounds of marijuana and invite in photographers, television stations and newspaper reporters.
The Nevada Legislature may sometimes resemble a house of animals — media included. But it’s also a house that considers animals in the many bills related to wildlife before the Legislature this year.
Legislators heard the reasons Thursday why they should give Clark County the authority to raise gas taxes. But the question remains as to whether the Clark County Commission would actually use that authority to apply an “index tax."
What could be more prophetic for a group of Nevada lawmakers headed to Arizona to tour a marijuana dispensary than running into Public Enemy hype man Flavor Flav at the airport? Before departing on their fact-finding mission, Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, R-Las Vegas, tweeted a picture of fellow lawmaker Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, with the rapper.
Clark County could raise its fuel taxes under a bill proposed Wednesday at the Nevada Legislature. The bill would give the Clark County Commission the power to tie the county’s 9 cent gasoline tax to a number of different inflation formulas.
Two state Senators introduced bills Monday night that would regulate strip clubs and other live adult entertainment venues. Sen. Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, wants to charge nude entertainment clubs a $10 per customer fee.
Confusion and miscommunication have thwarted hopes for reform
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
The bipartisan education reforms in 2011 were supposed to roll a complicated organizational hierarchy into a tight chain of command with Gov. Brian Sandoval in charge, but high turnover and the inherent reshuffling of duties under the new laws has led to confusion and miscommunication. At least one important reform measure has gone virtually ignored.
Clark County legislators say they’ll make a push this year to get more money for local schoolchildren. But they could have to play political hardball to get it.
Legislators took the first step toward legalizing same-sex marriage in Nevada today. Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, introduced a Senate Joint Resolution that would repeal the section of Nevada’s constitution that says “only a marriage between a male and female person shall be recognized.”
Changing the way mining is taxed could shift millions of dollars in tax proceeds that have given rural counties a leg up in education funding to state coffers, allowing lawmakers to more equitably distribute the money statewide.
Deciding to raise taxes is now your choice, Nevadans. The Nevada Legislature took no action within the 40-day limit it had to pass or reject the measure, meaning Nevada voters now get to play policymaker and vote the margins tax up or down.
Nevada mental health personnel improperly discharged a patient from a Las Vegas hospital, putting him on a Greyhound bus to Sacramento, Nevada health officials told state legislators at a hearing Thursday.
Nevada education officials called for more education funding today at a meeting at the Legislature. But they stopped short of embracing a business margins tax proposal that will likely go before voters in 2014.
After last week, the most unpopular people in the Nevada Legislature might be six Senate Republicans who proposed a tax on mining. But they may not be as unpopular as the mining industry would like to make them out to be.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority doesn’t want the “oversight” that Sen. Michael Roberson, R-Henderson, is proposing for the public utility. Roberson introduced a bill Monday that puts the SNWA under the authority of the Public Utilities Commission.
The sage grouse is a 2-ton elephant when it comes to making some Nevada industries sweat
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Although the number of sage grouse, or prairie chickens, nesting in the great expanses of Northern Nevada may seem trivial to anyone in Clark County, the bird’s potential listing as an endangered species has many of the state’s important industries worried.
Gaming companies and restaurateurs could win a tax break from the Nevada Legislature. Assemblyman Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas, wants companies to be able to serve their employees complimentary meals — or “comped” meals in Las Vegas parlance — tax free.
They bemoaned the financial losses the program has incurred during the past few years, and further decried the possibility that prisoners could be unduly competing with the private sector for scarce jobs.
Nevada high schoolers who are caught cheating three or more times would not be eligible for the state’s Millennium Scholarship program under a bill heard in committee today.
Many of Nevada’s chain restaurants, grocery stores, vending machines and convenience stores would need to label the nutritional information of their food under a bill proposed at the Nevada Legislature.
In a move fraught with exquisite political irony, GOP Sen. Michael Roberson both usurped from Democrats a favorite populist issue and launched an effort that could kill a broad-based business tax favored by a loyal Democratic constituency. Surprising lawmakers of both parties, as well as Gov. Brian Sandoval, Roberson announced that the majority of his caucus would back pulling the mining industry’s unique tax protections from the state constitution and support a ballot measure that would raise Nevada’s mining tax.
Nevada Senate Republicans called on the Legislature today to both remove the mining industry’s constitutional tax protections and find a way to increase taxes on the industry as an alternative to the margins tax ballot initiative. The announcement comes as the Legislature today prepares to hear testimony on the initiative petition supported by the state teachers union to create a margins tax on business revenue. “The competing measure will ask whether mining should contribute to the state’s education system at a level that more adequately reflects the benefit the industry gains by operating in our state,” said Senate Assistant Minority Leader Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno.
An annual report shows state employees found a little under $10,000 in savings under a program launched last year that rewards employees for cost-saving ideas. Of the six ideas submitted, only one was actually implemented, according to the report obtained by the Sun.
The bill Gov. Brian Sandoval signed does not open the floodgates for online gambling; it cracks the door a smidgen. The Nevada Resort Association won big with the new law after a slow, dozen-year push to ensconce protections for big casinos in online gaming laws and regulations.
Television station owner Jim Rogers has accused the Nevada Mining Association of “blackmail” and “bullying” over a news series critical of the mining industry.
Nevada families may no longer see a doctor when they visit a clinic if a bill in the Legislature passes into law. Instead, a nurse practitioner may be running the show.
Your property taxes could increase under a bill before the Nevada Legislature aimed at changing the state's property tax structure. But the bill does not call for a straight rate increase. Here’s how and why your bill could change.
It’s a wonder in Nevada state politics: At the start of a legislative session, both Republicans and Democrats are open to pursuing tax reform that would include a new tax on services. But the specifics of how to approach that new tax could quickly shatter any growing sense that the Legislature is a happy, bipartisan family.
The Nevada Legislature today fast tracked an online gaming bill, passing it through both unanimously and sending it to Gov. Brian Sandoval for his signature today.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid praised Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, dissed a Democratic rising star’s bill and called on the Legislature to go after NV Energy to spur renewable energy projects in a speech Wednesday to the Nevada Legislature.
Legislators heard emotional pleas to strengthen Nevada’s sex trafficking laws this morning from a victim of sex trafficking and a mother whose daughter was victimized by a pimp.
Senate Democrats today introduced four bills they say will create jobs in Nevada. But at least one of them involves new spending, and Democrats were largely unwilling to explain how they plan to pay for their proposals.
Law enforcement officers are sounding alarms about Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposal to shift state parole functions to the state Department of Corrections.