The bill, AB538, was introduced on Tuesday and is a part of Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak’s $8.8 billion budget. It would bring the state $98 million more in revenue over the coming biennium, but faces potential legal challenges over questions about whether it requires a two-thirds majority to take effect.

It’s why state Treasurer Zach Conine — a Democrat first elected in 2018 — is proposing SB44,  a policy that would not only cover the costs of administering the program but also create an endowment account designed to create a permanent funding solution for the scholarship program.

Long-awaited legislation establishing a Patient Protection Commission promised by Gov. Steve Sisolak on the campaign trail and charged with a top-to-bottom review of health care in Nevada will be introduced in the Senate on Monday.

In 2018, the state reported that 1,024 of the company’s employees were earning full-time wages and 1,116 of their dependents were on Medicaid — the state-run health insurance program for low-income Nevadans — at a cost of upwards of $5.7 million a year to taxpayers. (Those numbers include any employees who worked full-time for Sutherland as well as those who made the equivalent of full-time wages but may have split their time between Sutherland and another company.)

Amid lawsuits over the secrecy of the state’s marijuana business licensing regime, Gov. Steve Sisolak has signed a bill that will dramatically increase the level of transparency in the process.

Cannizzaro told reporters that she received an opinion late Wednesday from Legislative Counsel Bureau staff advising her that a two-thirds vote — typically required for any bill that “creates, generates, or increases any public revenue in any form” — would not be required to axe the planned payroll tax decrease.

The contract is based on contingent fees, an arrangement wherein the state will pay nothing up front but will owe a certain percentage of any damages received if the state prevails in the suit. The percentages in the contract are based on the amount of damages recovered and whether they are paid prior to or after discovery in any court proceeding. It sets maximum recoverable amounts by the firm in the following ranges:

The bill, SB529, was introduced Wednesday on the Senate floor and would place severe restrictions on access to the fund based on its size and economic factors including projected revenue shortfalls — amending the current broad state law that allows the fund to be allocated for “any other purpose.”

How such a limited topic drew in some of the state’s top lobbyists and chewed up a significant amount of time in the 120-day legislative session has come about mostly for one reason — the ability of the state’s 31 occupational licensing boards to hire professional contract lobbyists.

Although most boards and commissions contract with full-time, professional lobbyists, the dental examiners board elected to hire McDonald in late 2018 to be their sole lobbyist during the state’s 120-day legislative session and during the interim period between legislative sessions. But it remains unclear how McDonald, a rare presence in the legislative building and close ally of President Donald Trump, has represented the board in a session controlled by Democrats where key lawmakers and lobbyists for related entities say they haven’t interacted with him on any issues, even those affecting the dental board.

It’s official: Neon is now the State Element. Gov. Steve Sisolak signed AB 182 into law in his office Tuesday afternoon, surrounded by smiling students from Carson Montessori School who helped make it happen.

The announcement Tuesday comes after Ford’s office in January had received approval from state legislators to pursue outside legal help in a lawsuit against the nation’s largest opioid companies and after a declaration signed by Ford and Gov. Steve Sisolak finding the state needed “additional legal resources” for “comprehensive and effective litigation of matters related to the opioid epidemic.”

DMV spokeswoman Alex Walden says at least one person had successfully made the change at the Las Vegas DMV on Monday morning, the first day the non-binary gender option has been allowed. The shift, which has been several years in the making, comes on the heels of a 2016 move that allowed people to change their gender on their Nevada birth certificate.

Although only two bills have been signed by Sisolak in the first 72 days of the legislative session, many of his top priorities — raising the minimum wage, allowing state workers to collectively bargain and revamping the state’s K-12 funding formula — are all still working through the legislative process.

In a six-page internal memorandum, which was sent to staff of the attorney general’s office last week and shared with The Nevada Independent, Ford and his staff outlined a number of ambitious recommendations and policy goals aimed at addressing the premise that just locking people up isn’t working.

Although state lawmakers in 2017 approved $200,000 a year in new funding for a grant management software program — a system backers said could result in up to tens of millions of dollars in untapped federal funds — a lawsuit filed by a company that sought but didn’t receive the contract has stalled implementation of the system for the foreseeable future.

Division of Public and Behavioral Health Administrator Julie Kotchevar resigned from her post on Friday.

Attorney General Aaron Ford is leading a coalition of 20 attorneys general asking a federal appeals court to uphold a lower court ruling striking down a Kentucky law that would have effectively eliminated the only abortion provider in that state.