Nevada Legislature 2025

2-Minute Preview: Uber restrictions, child care tax credits, physician aid-in-dying bills up on Monday

Megan Messerly
Megan Messerly
Michelle Rindels
Michelle Rindels
Riley Snyder
Riley Snyder
Legislature
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The legislative session ends a week from today, but the finish line is still far away.

Lawmakers are busy hearing and voting out bills that have been exempted from deadlines, either because they have a financial impact to the state or have been granted a waiver by legislative leadership. Many of the bills have been heard in one house and are now being vetted by the other, while some are still working their way through the Legislature’s money committees as the budget begins to fall into place.

Legislation up for consideration on Monday include a physician-aid-in-dying bill that the governor will almost certainly veto, restrictions on ride sharing companies and an appropriation for the purchase of the dilapidated Huntridge Theater.

Here’s a look at those and more on deck on Monday:

SB226: Ride-sharing restrictions

Assembly members are scheduled to take up a newly amended measure that would place significant requirements on ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft.

The original bill, which passed on a 17-4 vote out of the Senate in April, would have required drivers for so-called transportation network companies show proof of holding a state business license to the company within six months of being hired.

But a major amendment submitted by Democratic Assemblyman Richard Carrillo would add substantial restrictions on drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft and require them to obtain a permit from the state’s transportation authority similar to the one required of traditional taxi drivers. It also makes various changes to insurance minimum requirements for ride-sharing drivers, and requires them to affix a vehicle permit from state regulators on their car.

A fiscal note submitted by the state’s transportation authority said the bill would cost $3.8 million over the two years of the budget, mostly in additional staff costs. Several groups, including the Internet Association, have said the amended proposal would was a “thinly veiled effort to recreate the old taxicab monopoly by eliminating ridesharing services from the state.”

Taxi businesses gave more than $327,000 to legislators during the 2016 election cycle.

Watch the hearing on the bill at 8 a.m. in the Assembly Committee on Ways and Means.

AB371: Appropriation for the purchase of the Huntridge Theater

Democratic Assemblywoman Heidi Swank’s bill to appropriate $3 million from the state general fund to purchase the Huntridge Theater in downtown Las Vegas is up for its first hearing in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee — more than two months after the bill was first introduced.

The bill would allow state officials to enter into contracts with private partners to assist with purchasing, repairs and restoring Huntridge Theater. Plans to renovate the dilapidated, historic theater have been in the works since it closed in the late 1990s, but efforts to renovate it have not been successful so far.

Watch the hearing in Assembly Ways and Means at 8 a.m.

SB455: Tax credits for child care

A bill that would provide tax credits to businesses for providing childcare to employees is up for a hearing in Senate Finance Monday morning.

The bill, sponsored by nonpartisan Sen. Patricia Farley, would allow an employer to receive a credit against the modified business tax if the employer pays money to the Division of Welfare and Supportive Services for the purpose of providing child care assistance to an employee. To count toward the tax credit, the assistance must be provided to an employee whose household income does not exceed 85 percent of the median income in Nevada, is determined eligible for the Program for Child Care and Development by the division, uses the assistance to provide care to a child younger than 13, and selects a certain provider who participates in a child care rating and improvement system administered by the state.

Employees would be required to pay the child care provider any portion of the cost of child care not covered by the employer.

The amount of the credit received by the business would be equal to 50 percent of the amount paid by the employer to the Division but must not exceed $5,000 per employee per year and any unused credits may be carried forward for five years. The total amount of credits awarded to taxpayers would not be allowed to exceed $5 million for fiscal year 2017-18, $5.5 million for 2018-19 and an amount equal to 110 percent of the amount the prior fiscal year for all subsequent fiscal years.

The legislation has yet to be voted on by either the Senate or the Assembly. Watch the hearing in Senate Finance at 8 a.m.

SB261: Physician-aid-in-dying bill

The Assembly is taking up a physician-aid-in-dying bill that passed the Senate by a narrow 11-10 margin last week.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. David Parks, would allow physicians to help terminally ill patients end their lives. The legislation defines a “terminal condition” as one that cannot be cured and will result in death within six months.

Nevada law currently allows patients with terminal conditions to refuse treatment that would keep them alive or resuscitate them. This legislation would allow a doctor to prescribe a controlled substance to a patient with terminal conditions that would end his or her life, if the patient meets certain conditions.

To be eligible, patients would have to be 18 years or older, competent, a Nevada resident and diagnosed by a terminal condition by two physicians. They would also have to make an informed and voluntary decision and affirm that no one is coercing them in making their decision.

Watch the hearing around 1 p.m. in the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee.

SB212: Expanding the Safe-to-Tell anti-bullying program

Lawmakers are considering a bill that would expand the “Safe-to-Tell” system, which allows people to anonymously report bullying or threats that involve schools.

SB212, sponsored by Republican Sen. Heidi Gansert, would require each public school to designate three staff members who would be notified of any reports to the system that involved the school and trained on how to respond to them.

While existing law allows the director to run a hotline or call center to receive reports, the bill also allows a website, mobile phone app, email address and support center for the program. Contact information for the program must be printed on the back of student and staff ID cards and posted in conspicuous locations around the school.

The bill also requires schools to develop a plan for how to respond to emergencies such as the suicide of a student or staff member, including strategies for providing counseling.

Watch the hearing around 3:15 p.m. in the Assembly Education Committee.

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