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Senate, Assembly vote on more than 100 bills week before deadline for for 1st house passage

Megan Messerly
Megan Messerly
Riley Snyder
Riley Snyder
Michelle Rindels
Michelle Rindels
LegislatureYucca Mountain
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While contentious floor fights on hot-button bills tend to garner the most attention, Nevada lawmakers have so far this session spent a majority of their time agreeing on bills.

More than 80 percent of the votes the Senate has taken to date have been unanimous, according to an analysis by The Nevada Independent. Only twelve votes out of 188, about 6 percent, have split on party lines, including votes this week on paid sick leave for certain employees and rollbacks of collective bargaining reforms passed in 2015.

The Assembly had a slower week than the Senate, passing out 35 bills this week compared to the 96 passed by the Senate. Of the 119 bills that have passed out of the Assembly to date, nearly 70 percent have been unanimous, with only six votes, or five percent, splitting on party lines.

Another 25 votes in the Senate and 30 votes in the Assembly have seen some kind of bipartisan support, either with one or two Republicans breaking with their party to vote with Democrats or with a number of Republicans breaking from the whole to dissent on a bill.

Expect those numbers to change heading into Tuesday’s deadline for bills to leave their house of origin, with late-night floor sessions and many more contentious measures up for a vote.

The Senate voted 25 bills out on Friday, including four party line votes, while the Assembly voted out 22 bills, none of which were split on party lines. Here’s a look at some of those bills:

SB226: Business licenses for TNCs

With only a handful of no votes, Nevada senators approved a compromise measure (17-4) designed to make sure drivers for ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft have a valid state business license.

SB226 would require transportation network companies to require new drivers to provide proof of a valid business license within six months of being hired, and for existing drivers to provide proof on the anniversary of their hiring with the company. It would also require businesses such as Uber and Lyft to provide the secretary of state with a list of drivers to cross-check if they have business licenses.

Four Republicans — Sens. Michael Roberson, Ben Kieckhefer, Don Gustavson and Pete Goicoechea — voted against the measure.

SB356 and SB469: Revisiting collective bargaining changes

Over loud complaints from Republicans, Nevada Democrats pushed through two bills they claimed fixed issues caused by collective bargaining rollbacks approved during the 2015 session.

SB469, which was approved on a party-line vote, would reduce the pot of money that local governments can exempt from negotiations with collective bargaining units over compensation or monetary benefits from 25 percent of budgeted expenditures to 16.67 percent. It reduces an amount placed in state law in 2015 that passed with uniform Democratic opposition.

Republicans also cried foul over SB356, which also reverses several collective bargaining changes passed in 2015. The bill reinstates the ability of all school principals and administrators to participate in collective bargaining, returns to previous rules on arbitration that were in place prior to 2015 and reinstates the ability “evergreen” provisions allowing monetary benefits in collectively bargained agreements to continue even if an agreement expires.

Republican Sen. Michael Roberson said the measure “gutted” a compromise arrangement that received broad support during the 2015 session.

SB384: Keeping data on public pension payouts private

Lawmakers were split on Democratic Sen. Julia Ratti’s bill to make more information about public pensions private. SB384 passed 11-10, with all Republicans and Democratic Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro opposed.

Existing law makes the records of the pensions like the Public Employees Retirement System public, except for the files of individual members.

The bill would make most information private, except for the identification number of an employee, their last employer, their years of service and the annual pension rate.

Groups including the libertarian think tank Nevada Policy Research Institute have decried the bill. Without names, it would make it harder for people to search for pension data on websites like NPRI’s Transparent Nevada.

AJR10: Resolution opposing the development of Yucca Mountain

The Assembly passed a resolution telling Congress that Nevada doesn’t want a nuclear waste dump in its backyard, but it wasn’t unanimous.

Republican Assemblyman Chris Edwards compared the measure, AJR10, to “poking the bear” and said the Trump Administration would probably relish a fight with the state. It’s better to do nothing and not attract too much negative attention, he argued.

Republican Assemblyman Ira Hansen supported the resolution but said Nevada needed to be consistent — if it didn’t want the federal government making decision about lands in Nevada borders, it should get behind efforts to reclaim federally managed land for the state. Democrats have been loathe to support such measures.

Supporters of Democratic Assemblyman Chris Brooks’ measure said the state needed to take a stand against the Trump Administration’s efforts to restart licensing for the repository. Lawmakers passed the resolution 32-6.

AB180: Juvenile Justice Bill of Rights

Assembly members unanimously supported Democratic Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno’s AB180, which lays out a bill of rights for youth in detention centers.

The measure enshrines a child’s right to education, healthy food and physical and mental health services. It also specifies that a young inmate should be free from corporal punishment unless it’s a reasonable use of force necessary to maintain the safety of the child or others, and free from psychotropic medications unless staff is adhering to policies laid out in the law.

SB194: Ban on selling shark fins, ivory and other products made from certain sensitive species

Democrats were joined by Republican Sens. Heidi Gansert and Becky Harris in supporting legislation to prohibit the purchase or sale of shark fins, ivory tusks from elephants and a number of other products from protected animal species.

The bill prohibits the purchase, sale or possession with intent to sell any item in Nevada that is made of an animal part or byproduct from a shark fin or any species of elephant, rhinoceros, tiger, lion, leopard, cheetah, jaguar, pangolin, sea turtle, ray, mammoth, narwhal, walrus or hippopotamus. The legislation imposes certain criminal and civil penalties for violating the provision, while exempting certain classes of sales from penalties including those involving law enforcement, antiques, musical instruments, knives and firearms and scientific or educational instruments. It also exempts the sales of items specifically authorized by federal law.

The Senate passed the legislation 14-6 Friday afternoon.

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