A Brief Description - How the Nevada State Legislature Works
Nevada's State Legislature meets every two years. During their regular 120 day sessions, they make laws, approve regulations, and set a budget for the next two years (known as a biennium). Between sessions, interim committees of legislators attend to various ongoing business and issues which may crop up. Should circumstances arise requiring the passage of laws (like budget items), the governor can call a special session and it is his or her job to determine the agenda. This is what happened in 2010 and has occurred many times in the past. As during a regular session, the governor can sign or veto any laws passed by the legislature. Politically speaking, this power of the governor gets a little tricky as the legislature does not have the option of overriding vetoes should they happen after a special session has adjourned.The 2010 Special Session of the Nevada State Legislature
The 26th Special Session of the Nevada Legislature, called by Governor Jim Gibbons, began on February 23, 2010, at 9 a.m. and adjourned on March 1, 2010, at 2:16 a.m. The main order of business was dealing with a deficit of over $800 million which had developed since a budget for the biennium was approved during the 2009 regular session.The first days were spent jockeying for position. Lobbyists for various groups presented their positions for not having any funding cut or taxes levied on their particular interests. These included the mining and gaming industries, teachers, school districts, higher education, and state employees. Initially, a state government polarized between Democratic and Republicans legislators and a Republican governor was far apart on what to do. When reality finally sunk in, a surprising amount of bipartisan cooperation ensued.
Governor Gibbons came out swinging with a combative attitude when calling the special session. Depending on whose report you read, he either became the main player who brokered the needed cooperation between political factions, or he was neutralized because most Republicans and Democrats figured out that coming a reasonable compromise was really the only sensible thing to do. Experienced legislators, from both sides of the aisle, helped to seal the budget deals. These included Republican State Senators Bill Raggio and Randolph Townsend, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, and Assembly Republican Leader Heidi Gansert. A deal was finally worked out, but virtually no one was happy with it. Those on the far right decried fee and tax increases. Those on the far left condemned cuts to education and social services. A number of steps taken were only temporary fixes or tapped into funds that won't be available in the future, like federal stimulus dollars. Everyone warned that this was only a preview of the pain coming up when the legislature and governor will be staring down an estimated $3 billion shortfall at the 2011 legislative session.
Here is a summary of steps taken to balance the fiscal year budget up to June 20, 2011. Some of the revenue comes from one-time appropriations from local governments, some is non-recurring federal funds, and some is from taxes and fees set to sunset in 2011. In other words, the 2010 special session applied a bunch of duct tape thats going to peel off and reveal an even bigger hole in 2011.
- Higher education funding cut 7%, or about $44 million. This includes possibly closing the School of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources at UNR and turning away 2,600 students at TMCC.
- K-12 education funding cut 6.9%. In Washoe County, that amounts to around $16 million less from the state.
- Reduced operating expenditures throughout state government, including education - $304 million.
- Transfers from various reserve accounts - $197 million.
- Money nabbed from the Clark County capital projects fund, the Millennium Scholarship fund, uncollected taxes - $129 million.
- Federal funding for a variety of programs - $114 million.
- Fee increases to mining, banking, and various services provided by the secretary of state - $53 million.
For more details and specifics about bills passed and signed into law, or not, refer to the legislature's 26th (2010) Special Session Bill Information.
Senate Bill 3 - Vetoed by the governor. Beginning on July 1, 2010, this measure would have set a four-day work week for most state employees and tightened up on exemptions to mandatory eight hours per month furloughs applied to some workers. According to Robin Reedy, Governor Gibbons' chief of staff, he will try to accomplish similar goals through executive order and negotiations with management.
For more details and specifics about bills passed and signed into law, or not, refer to the legislature's 26th (2010) Special Session Bill Information.What's Next?
This crisis may finally generate some serious moves toward tax reform in Nevada. What exists now is a heavy reliance on sales and gaming taxes, which works just fine when the economy is booming. In a sour economy, it doesn't work at all.Because of term limits, some of the most experienced legislators (such as Raggio and Townsend) will not be present following the 2010 elections. Unless Governor Gibbons' approval ratings improve dramatically, he won't be there either. This may augur difficulties as inexperienced lawmakers wrestle with tax and revenue issues or it may bring a spate of new and innovative ideas. I'm certainly hoping for the latter, but am not overly optimistic.
Sources: Nevada State Legislature, Reno Gazette-Journal.
