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2-Minute Preview: More votes slated ahead of first house passage deadline; Millennium, Promise scholarship bills get second hearings

Megan Messerly
Megan Messerly
Riley Snyder
Riley Snyder
Legislature
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Assembly Chambers during speech

Lawmakers will continue voting on Thursday ahead of a deadline for bills to clear their house of origin early next week. But they’ll also be giving a couple of bills not subject to legislative deadlines their first hearings.

Assemblywoman Dina Neal’s proposal to expand the factors that a judge must consider when deciding whether to release someone without setting bail will be up in the Assembly Judiciary Committee, while a proposal from the Governor’s Finance Office would remove a requirement that businesses that make less than $4 million file an informational `Commerce Tax return will get its first hearing in the Senate Taxation Committee.

Other bills up for their second committee hearings would revise how often the state is required to review the levels of supervision for those on parole or probation and make changes to the Millennium and Promise scholarships. Lawmakers will also have dozens of other bills up for possible votes on Thursday.

For more information on the status of bills working their way through the Legislature, check out The Nevada Independent’s bill tracker. And for the bills in committee today, check out the Legislature’s website for committee times and links to watch live committee meetings and floor sessions.

Here’s what to watch for on Thursday at the Legislature:

Department of Corrections, other budgets

Members of a joint budget subcommittee are scheduled to hold a budget hearing for the state Department of Corrections, as well as close budgets of the Colorado River Commission, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and a state account for off-highway vehicles.

The subcommittee meets at 8 a.m.

AB8: Probation check-ins

This bill, backed by the Division of Parole and Probation, would revise how often the state is required to review the levels of supervision for a person on parole or probation from at least every six months to a schedule determined by a state risk assessment tool. The bill passed with near-unanimous support in the Assembly last month with the lone no vote coming from Democratic Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton.

The committee will also hear AB9, a Supreme Court-backed bill that would amend which jurisdictions can hear small claims cases. That bill passed unanimously out of the Assembly when it came up for a vote in early March.

Both are up for hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee at 8 a.m.

AB91: Sterilization of people under guardianship

Sponsored by the Legislative Committee on Senior Citizens, Veterans and Adults With Special Needs, this bill proposes to impose additional requirements on guardians seeking to sterilize a person under their care. Under existing law, guardians are allowed to make the decision to sterilize someone with court approval if it would directly benefit the person’s physical or mental health or would help him or her develop or regain certain abilities.

The legislation would additionally require the court to appoint both an attorney and a guardian ad litem — the individual appointed by a court to determine what is in someone’s best interest — to represent the protected person. Whether or not the protected person has consented to undergo sterilization, the court would also be required to conduct a full evidentiary hearing before it can authorize the sterilization.

The bill, which passed out of the Assembly unanimously last week, will also be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee at 8 a.m.

AB125: Additional factors to consider before imposing bail

If approved, this bill by Democratic Assemblywoman Dina Neal would require courts to consider whether to apply conditions such as residential confinement or regular check-ins with police for people arrested but before imposing bail.

The measure lays out several other possible conditions on pretrial release a judge can order in lieu of bail, including a curfew, surrendering firearms, required mental illness or substance abuse treatment or a requirement to maintain employment. It also requires that after a defendant has personally appeared in court, the judge “may not rely solely” on any standardized bail schedule to set the amount of bail.

The bill will be heard in Assembly Judiciary at 9:30 a.m.

SB350: Nevada Promise Scholarships

This bill, sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Mo Denis, makes changes to the need-based Nevada Promise Scholarship, which aims to help recent high school graduates attend community college for free. The legislation, which passed out of the Senate unanimously last week, proposes reducing the scholarship’s community service requirement from 20 to eight hours and limits the number of mandatory pre-scholarship meetings from two to one.

Immigration advocates are hoping to make an additional change to the scholarship this session that would allow schools to accept some other proof of financial need other than FAFSA. Many undocumented immigrants don’t have a Social Security number, needed to fill out FAFSA, and also generally worry about revealing too much information to the federal government.

The bill will be heard by the Assembly Education Committee at 1:30 p.m.

SB453: Changes to the Millennium Scholarship

Sponsored by the Senate Education Committee, this bill would make changes to the grade-point requirements associated with the need-based Millennium Scholarship, established by the Legislature in 1999.

Under existing law, recipients of the scholarship are required to maintain at least a 2.6 grade point average during their first year in college, followed by a 2.75 grade point average for every semester after. This bill would change that requirement to a 2.75 grade point average across the board.

The bill would also make it harder for students to lose their scholarship for a brief academic slip. Right now, students who don’t meet the grade point requirement lose their funding but can have it reinstated if they bring their grades back up. This legislation would give students a one semester grace period to increase their grade point average; if they fail to do so, they would lose the scholarship the following semester.

The bill, which passed unanimously out of the Senate earlier this month, will be heard by the Assembly Education Committee at 1:30 p.m.

SB497: No informational Commerce Tax returns for businesses making under $4 million

All businesses making $4 million or more a year in gross revenue are required to pay a Commerce Tax, approved by lawmakers in 2015, to the state. Businesses that make under $4 million are still required to file an information return with the Department of Taxation by the law. This bill, proposed by the Governor’s Office of Finance, would no longer require businesses that make under $4 million to file an informational return.

The bill is up for a hearing in the Senate Taxation Committee at 4 p.m.

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