Get ready to hear more about Education Savings Accounts, marijuana, conjugal visits and antler dealers when lawmakers head back to Carson City early next year.

Those are just a few of the topics surfacing in proposed legislation ahead of the upcoming lawmaking session. As of Monday, more than 375 bill draft requests have been filed by state lawmakers, legislative committees and executive branch agencies seeking some change in state law for the 2019 session, which will begin in February.

Bill draft requests, or BDRs, are the starting point for just about every bill that will be introduced in the Legislature, and are allowed to be submitted by a wide variety of government actors from state legislators to the governor. The requests are typically just a brief description, with actual proposed changes in laws coming during the legislative session itself.

Incumbent lawmakers were required to file their first batch of bill draft requests by August 1 (four for Assembly members and eight per senator), with the next deadline for legislators coming in December.

Here’s a look at what BDRs have been requested in the past month:

Marijuana

Big changes could be coming to Nevada’s medical and recreational marijuana programs — although most of more ambitious ideas are being sponsored by a lawmaker who will likely not be around for the 2019 session.

Democratic Senator Tick Segerblom, who is expected to easily win a seat on the Clark County Commission after fending off a tough challenge from union organizer Marco Hernandez, has submitted multiple marijuana-related bills both as an individual senator and as head of the Senate Committee on Judiciary.

The bills are also unusual for their level of specificity — one submitted by the Senate committee would appropriate $1 million to study the feasibility of a marijuana stock exchange, allow for state certification of marijuana products, authorize local governments to allow for the cannabis tasting at settings such as coffee shops, change DUI rules as related to marijuana and allow district attorneys to vacate misdemeanor marijuana convictions to prohibiting employers from testing for marijuana before hiring.

Another would move a 10 percent sales tax on marijuana sales from the state’s Rainy Day fund to a school support funding account.

Segerblom said in an interview that while he hoped to not be in the Legislature come 2019, he wanted to put his ideas on the table anyway, but hadn’t spoken to any legislators yet about possibly taking them up if he is elected to the county commission.

Another Segerblom-backed BDR includes a Nevada version of a California bill that would create state-chartered banks that would serve marijuana dispensaries, which would get around the issue of private banks not serving the industry due to federal prohibitions on marijuana. Segerblom is also sponsoring a bill that would create a marijuana banking interstate compact with California, which he said would allow residents of that state to more easily purchase marijuana products in Nevada.

Education

Segerblom didn’t limit his BDRs to marijuana, though. He also requested a bill that would make a variety of education-related changes — most notably, increasing the salary for school board trustees.

In addition, his proposed legislation would make school board and county commission districts the same in certain counties, and it would allow public schools to accept students on a part-time basis.

Members of the Clark County School Board of Trustees currently receive $9,000 per year for their duties in the elected position.

Segerblom’s monetary request comes at a time when others are advocating for the shake-up of school board structures. Democrat Steve Sisolak, who’s running for governor, released his education plan earlier this year, which calls for revamping school boards to include a combination of locally elected members, locally appointed leaders and state-appointed experts. The gubernatorial candidate has said that make-up would add expertise on subject matters such as finance and land management.

Other education-related BDRs have been submitted, but many contain vague language such as “revises provisions related to education.” The Nevada Department of Education, however, filed eight BDRs covering a variety of topics, including school safety, truancy, teacher licensing, Turnaround Schools and the Achievement School District.

Resolutions

Several lawmakers also put in requests for joint resolutions, which are non-binding, don’t require approval from the governor and are typically sent to Congress. Requests submitted over the past month include:

• Urging Congress to require the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service to include Cheat Grass in forage estimates. The request by Republican Assemblyman Ira Hansen will likely prove controversial among the state’s ranching community — cheat grass is an invasive species that has been blamed for exacerbating the region’s wildfires, though University of Nevada, Reno professors in a recent study found livestock are able to consume the plant.
• A request to Congress to “ensure a fair 2020 national census.” The measure, brought forward by Democratic Assemblyman Tyrone Thompson, is likely a response to the federal government’s plan to ask a question about citizenship on the 2020 census.
• A request that Congress change the name of Jeff Davis Peak inside Great Basin National Park by Democratic Assemblywoman Heidi Swank. The peak, which was named after Davis in 1855 before the Mississippian became the president of the Confederate States of America, has been targeted for a name change since last year.

Corrections

Nevada Department of Corrections Director James Dzurenda has made rehabilitation and avoiding reincarceration a priority since taking the reins of the department two years ago — and the agency’s proposed bills for the 2019 session largely reflect that.

Of the agency’s five submitted BDRs, several deal with measures that appear designed to reduce recidivism among incarcerated persons, including measures that would establish a treatment and aftercare system for offenders with a “substance abuse disorder,” create a jobs program and allow the director to assign offenders to residential confinement.

A spokeswoman for the department didn’t return an email seeking further comment on the BDRs, including one modifying the penalty for “unlawful acts related to human excrement or bodily fluids committed by prisoners.”

The department also didn’t comment on a BDR submitted by Segerblom that would allow for prisoners to have conjugal visits with their significant others. Although Segerblom likely won’t be in the Legislature, approval of the bill would see Nevada buck the trend of states getting rid of conjugal visits — going from 17 states that allowed it in the mid 1990s to only four today.

Diaper tax exemption

Assemblywoman Sandra Jauragui wants to eliminate sales and use taxes for adult and infant diapers — part of a national trend to make it easier for low-income families to access critical hygiene products.

Thirty-seven states, including Nevada, charge a sales tax on diapers, according to The National Diaper Network. Eight states — Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont — exempt diapers from taxation, while Maryland and North Dakota only exempt adult diapers.

Governor’s office

Although Gov. Brian Sandoval will be leaving his office in just a few months, his office is still submitting several BDRs for the 2019 Legislature to consider.

One of the BDRs calls for the extension of the state’s Resource Conservation Bond Program, a voter-approved initiative that authorized up to $200 million in general bonds for state lands, parks, and wildlife resources.

Sandoval’s spokeswoman said another BDR submitted by his office included a recommendation on consumer protection from the Governor’s Committee on Energy Choice — an advisory committee charged with studying how the state Legislature should implement the Energy Choice Initiative if it passes on the 2018 ballot.

Sandoval’s office also submitted a BDR seeking to revise the “powers and duties” of the state Office of Workforce Innovation.

Republican goals

For the third session in a row, Republican Sen. Scott Hammond is introducing a bill designed to fund Education Savings Accounts, or ESAs.

Initially approved on party line during the 2015 Republican-led Legislature, ESAs — which would allocate to parents more than $5,000 in state funds to be put toward education-related expenses — had their funding source blocked via a state Supreme Court decision in 2016, and a deal that would have allowed direct funding for the program fell apart in the last hours of the 2017 Legislature.

But Hammond isn’t giving up his quest to broaden school choice in Nevada. He said it’s the same bill he introduced last session.

“I’m not done with this battle,” he said. “I really believe in it. I don’t think it’s a partisan issue at all. I think it’s a parent and student issue about where they want to go.”

A long-shot, repeat bill to make English the official language of Nevada has been requested by Republican Assemblyman Richard McArthur. The bill never received a hearing in 2017.

Las Vegas shooting

The 2019 Legislature will be the first session after the Oct. 1 shooting, which left 58 people dead and hundreds more injured on the Las Vegas Strip. Two recent BDRs pertain to the tragedy.

Assemblywoman Lesley Cohen has proposed legislation that would create “One October” specialty license plates to honor the victims. Nevada already offers a host of specialty plates, which raise money for causes ranging from the state’s Department of Wildlife to the protection of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

A separate bill proposed by the Division of Emergency Management, which is housed within the Department of Public Safety, would provide licensure for out-of-state, private medical practitioners during emergencies and natural disasters.

A day after the shooting, Gov. Brian Sandoval signed an executive order that declared a state of emergency in Clark County and allowed licensed out-of-state medical personnel to assist in Nevada.

Right-to-Die Law

Nearly four years ago, a terminally ill woman named Brittany Maynard became a household name after she announced her intention to take advantage of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. Her video went viral, sparking a national conversation about right-to-die laws.

State Sen. David Parks introduced a similar measure in Nevada during the 2015 legislative session, but it didn’t go anywhere. He tried again in 2017. The Senate approved the bill, but the Assembly didn’t act on the measure before session ended.

It appears that Parks hopes the third time’s the charm. He has requested a bill to enact the Nevada Death with Dignity Act during the 2019 legislative session.

Wildlife

Antler dealers could face a bit more regulation in Nevada. The state’s Department of Wildlife has submitted a bill draft request that would require antler dealers to be licensed.