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Less than a week before next deadline, lawmakers pass bills on unions, pot and education

Riley Snyder
Riley Snyder
Megan Messerly
Megan Messerly
Michelle Rindels
Michelle Rindels
LegislatureMarijuana
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The Nevada Legislature building as seen in Carson City on Feb. 6, 2017.

With less than a week until the next deadline and two weeks until the session must end, lawmakers are preparing to spend hours working diligently through floor sessions to pass hundreds of bills.

Legislation that isn’t exempted from deadlines need to clear the second house — meaning that Senate bills need to pass the Assembly and vice versa — by Friday or else the bills will be sent to their graves. Other bills have been granted waivers or exemptions from legislative deadlines, meaning they’ll survive regardless where they are in the process four days from now.

With that in mind, lawmakers are clipping along trying to clear some of the less controversial pieces of legislation off their places. On Monday, the Assembly passed 30 bills, while the Senate passed another 22. Most of those votes were unanimous, though the Assembly voted on party lines to approve a bill that would allow marijuana massages and the Senate split on a bill requiring employee orientation to include meeting with with unions.

A full list of floor votes for the entire session can be found on this spreadsheet.

Here are some of the highlights of bills that received votes on Monday.

AB350: Mandatory union meeting time for new employees

State senators voted on party lines to approve a measure requiring new employee orientations for state workers include presentations from a union.

Democratic Assemblyman Ozzie Fumo’s AB350 would require new state workers receive an orientation during their first 30 days of employment that would cover personnel policies, any ethics or conflict of interest rules, benefits programs and a 30-minute presentation by an employee organization. The orientation would be delivered either in person, through video conference or a prerecorded video.

It also requires state agencies to transmit a new employee’s name, work address and job title to an employee organization within 7 days of a hiring.

The bill passed out of the Assembly on a party-line 27-15 vote earlier it April. It now returns to the Assembly, where legislators will have the chance to concur on an amendment making several minor changes to the orientation process adopted in the Senate.

SB361: Leave for domestic violence victims

Senators unanimously gave support to a measure upping penalties for repeat domestic violence offenders and allowing victims of domestic violence take time off from work.

The amended version of SB361, which is sponsored by Democratic Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro, would require employers give 160 hours of leave time per year to employees who are victims of domestic violence. Employees could use the leave time to receive health care, obtain counseling or participate in court proceedings, as long as they give their employer 48 hours notice.

It also raises penalties on intentionally violating temporary or extended restraining orders related to domestic violence, and increases the felony charge on multiple domestic violence battery convictions.

SB374: Marijuana massages

A measure that would legalize marijuana massages passed on a party-line vote in the Assembly today.

The bill, which also passed on a party-line vote in the Senate last month, would allow health care providers and massage therapists to administer a marijuana-infused product for topical use. Therapists would be allowed to administer a product provided by a client, maintain a supply of products for use on a client and recommend the use of marijuana or industrial hemp by a client to treat a condition.

The legislation, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Tick Segerblom, would also prohibit a professional licensing board from disciplining a health care provider or massage therapist for administering or recommending the use of marijuana. Licensing boards would also be barred from taking disciplinary action against a licensee on the basis that the person holds a valid marijuana registry identification card or engages in lawful activity pursuant to his or her profession relating to the use of marijuana.

SB366: Reports on employees enrolled in Medicaid

A bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. Yvanna Cancela that would make public how many employees certain employers have on Medicaid passed the Assembly today on a 28-13 vote, with Assemblywoman Jill Tolles the long Republican “yes” vote.

The legislation, which passed the Senate unanimously last month, requires the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare an annual report listing all employers who have 50 or more employees and the number of full-time employees who are enrolled in Medicaid. The report would also have to include information about whether the employee has access to an employer-based health plan.

The bill also creates the Advisory Committee on Medicaid Innovation, which would be required to provide certain recommendation to the department about public and private prescription purchasing coalitions, encouraging access to health insurance and any waivers the state can apply for from the federal government relating to Medicaid.

AB275: Integrated student supports

This bill, backed by Democratic Assemblywoman Ellen Spiegel, requires the Department of Education to establish a statewide framework for providing and coordinating “integrated student supports,” which include academic and non-academic resources to students and their families.

Supporters such as the Guinn Center for Policy Priorities say students perform better in school when their non-academic needs are also met. The think tank pointed to successes in the Victory Schools program for children in low-income neighborhoods; state money to that program is also supporting psychological and health services, parent engagement initiatives and programs that improve the school culture and climate.

The bill required boards to annually analyze needs in their district or charter school, ensure that various service providers are coordinating with each other and ensure that the progress of students who are getting such “wraparound services” is tracked.

The bill got a party line, 12-9, vote in the Senate.

SB204: Energy Storage

Legislators in both houses have now approved a measure requiring the state's Public Utilities Commission to analyze and possibly set non-binding energy storage targets for electric utilities.

SB204, which is sponsored by Democratic Sen. Kelvin Atkinson, passed out of the Assembly on a 39-2 vote, with Democrats Maggie Carlton and Olivia Diaz voting against it.

The bill would require the PUC to investigate and determine whether or not the benefits and costs associated with using energy storage systems, and assign biennial targets for utilities to procure storage systems.

An NV Energy executive said in May that the utility could likely integrate storage systems into electric distribution, and liked that the bill gave the PUC and utility flexibility.

AB312: Recommended student-teacher ratios

This bill would require the Nevada State Board of Education to develop non-binding recommendations for student-teacher ratios in kindergarten through 12th grade. That would be an expansion of existing law, which prescribes the maximum student-teacher ratios for grades 1, 2 and 3.

The measure, sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Brittney Miller, passed the Assembly in a 39-3 vote but passed the Senate on Monday a 12-9, party-line vote.

Disclosure: NV Energy has donated to The Nevada Independent. You can see a full list of donors here.
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