With just over two days left until the legislative session is set to end, Nevada lawmakers have found themselves in an impasse over a major budget implementation bill that allocates funds to everything from air conditioner repairs at state buildings to a multi-million dollar engineering building at UNR.

The $346 million Capital Improvement Program (CIP) is encapsulated in a single bill, SB546, that lies “dead” in the Senate. Republicans in the minority, who vowed in January not to approve any budget that doesn’t include funding to revive the stalled voucher-style Education Savings Accounts program that Democrats opposed, are making good on their promises to vote against the five budget implementation bills since negotiations erupted on Thursday.

Democrats say ESAs are dead after the two sides failed to come to a compromise that would have toned down Sandoval’s $60 million budget request to $45 million and made it more palatable through tax credit funding and provisions to distribute awards based on financial need.

Their protest votes aren’t enough to stop four of the bills requiring simple majority votes, but are blocking implementation of the CIP budget due to a wrinkle that caught several legislators off-guard — a mandatory two-thirds vote requirement. In the past three legislative sessions, the CIP bills were mistakenly marked as simple majority votes, catching some veteran legislators unaware this session.

Failing to pass the CIP budget would mean a roughly $270 million hole in the state’s budget, given the loss of property tax revenue and bond payments. It also means the loss of popular construction projects including a Northern Nevada Veterans Home and a new Department of Motor Vehicles facility in Reno that could hurt local legislators politically.

So how might lawmakers move forward? Here are a few possibilities:

CIP in exchange for ESAs

Republicans are still hoping they can extract a compromise on ESAs by withholding their votes on the CIP. Democrats are publicly pronouncing the program dead, saying Republicans had their chance on a deal and didn’t take it.

“There's no votes for ESAs. ESAs are done,” said Democratic Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton. “That was worked on for a long time. It was negotiated. It didn't happen. When you're done you're done.”

Republican Sen. Scott Hammond says he can’t see why Democrats still take issue with the ESA program, which he said will help their constituents too and — under a compromise tax credit model similar to the Opportunity Scholarships — would go predominantly to low- and middle-income families.

“What is their real argument?” said Hammond, the author of the original ESA bill that passed in 2015.

Democratic Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson said that “no discussion” had occurred on possibly trading votes for the construction budget in exchange for an 11th hour revival of the ESA program, and that primary negotiations were still taking place in upper chamber.

“I think the discussion is over in the Senate and we’ll kind of adjust as they decide what they’re going to do,” he said.

Republican Sen. Ben Kieckhefer said A CIP-for-ESA trade has come up.

“There have been discussions. Whether they've been fruitful is a different subject,” he said. “I'd say it was talked about in concept. I don't know if there's a deal to be had or not.”

In an interview with reporters Friday, Assembly Republican leader Paul Anderson said that withholding votes on the budget bill would be a “very tough decision to make,” but that his caucus planned to stand firm with Senate Republicans in opposing budget bills — including the construction budget.

CIP in exchange for something less

Republicans could negotiate a compromise that could give them the political cover to renege on their promise to reject a budget without ESAs. The CIP bill contains things that lawmakers from both parties want — including a nursing home for veterans in Reno that’s especially close to home for Kieckhefer and Republican Sen. Heidi Gansert.

For Southern Nevada, there is funding to start planning new buildings at the College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State College.

Republicans could tell their constituents they fought a good fight but were not able to win on ESAs, and still wanted to support the projects in the CIP for the good of the state. They might be able to get some support from Democrats on other priorities as part of a deal for their votes.

CIP in exchange for nothing

If it comes to it, Republicans could give up the fight for ESAs and vote on the CIP on the grounds that it’s the right thing to do for the state and creates jobs for Nevadans.

“They need to pass the governor’s jobs bill,” said Carlton, who chairs one of the Legislature’s two money committees. “That is the biggest jobs bill we do. That’s all about spending money … We make sure people go to work with that bill.”

Democrats believe Republicans would suffer greatly in their constituents’ eyes if they don’t ultimately vote on the CIP, and doubt they would be willing to take that political risk. They have already sought to shame Republicans into voting for the CIP through rallies and news conferences, and have tried to describe Republicans’ protest votes against the budget as a vote against the most vulnerable people in the state.

Amending the two-thirds provision out of the CIP budget

This isn’t really a viable option. Carlton says lawmakers are required by state statute to authorize capital improvement projects and fund them in the same bill. Plus, there’s not much of a point to pass one without the other.

“This is the legal way to actually do the CIP budget,” Carlton said. “Because what good would it do to pass the projects and not have the money to fund it?”

Carlton said she that legislative fiscal staff are looking at what would happen if the Legislature passed the projects without funding for the bonds and whether general fund money could be moved around to cover the shortfall.

No CIP

If lawmakers didn’t approve the CIP budget, they’d lose the vehicle that directs ongoing bond payments effective July 1.

“Certainly the bond payments can't stop, otherwise we would be in default and that would be bad for the state's credit rating,” said Jim Wells, director of the Governor’s Office of Finance. “We will still have to make bond payments. The question would be how.”

While Republicans have remained totally opposed to passing any budget bills, Sandoval has pledged not to hold a special session for any reason, meaning that lawmakers realistically need to get a CIP bill passed before the end of the day on Monday.

“At some point we need to get a CIP program approved, not just for the projects that are in  the bill, but obviously the ongoing debt service,” Kieckhefer said. “Everybody's got a lot at stake.”

Asked whether the governor had been pushing Republicans to vote for the CIP, his spokeswoman, Mari St. Martin, said “the governor is working with legislators to complete the state’s work on time.”

What happens now?

Lawmakers are carrying on with their other tasks — plowing through a long list of bills and approving the other four budget implementation bills without Republican votes. They have until 11:59 p.m. on Monday to solve their issues, and the governor could call lawmakers back into special session to resolve the matter if it doesn’t happen.

While Kieckhefer said “the governor has not made an ask of me” on the CIP, he and fellow Republicans have fielded visits from activists who are pushing them to give up the ESA fight. Such was the case Saturday afternoon at Kieckhefer’s office, where two women waited for him and pleaded that he come up with a resolution.

“We’re working on it,” he told them.

This story was updated at 6:11 p.m. to add comment from Sen. Ben Kieckhefer and Jim Wells, and at 6:26 p.m. to add comment from Gov. Brian Sandoval's office.

Photo Caption: The South Beach apartments under construction in Las Vegas on Friday, Feb. 24, 2017. Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent.