(Corrected at 4:21 a.m. on March 10, 2010)
CARSON CITY – Thanks to term limits and decisions by some lawmakers not to seek re-election, at least 17 members of the Nevada Legislature will not be returning in 2011, and the number could end up being even higher after Election Day in November.
Seventeen lawmakers are termed out [...]
CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons on Wednesday will sign the “Race to the Top” bill allowing Nevada to compete for federal school improvement funds, a spokesman said today.
Dan Burns, communications director for Gibbons, said via email that the governor will sign Senate Bill 2 to give Nevada the chance to compete for as much [...]
CARSON CITY –A college scholarship available to eligible Nevada high school graduates could be in financial jeopardy as early as next year after the Legislature on Monday reluctantly agreed to take $12.6 million from the program to help balance the state budget.
But even as the Gov. Guinn Millennium Scholarship program faces an uncertain future, Sen. Bob [...]
Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, said her surprise decision announced today to leave public office has nothing to do with rumors that she could be appointed to serve out the remainder of Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio’s term should the lawmaker decide to step down.
“I’ve never talked to him about that,” she said. “It [...]
CARSON CITY – The Independent American Party (IAP) this week released its list of candidates for 38 different offices, including the seat now held by U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and all three congressional seats. There are candidates for state and local offices as well.
Nevada State GOP Chairman Chris Comfort [...]
(This story was updated at 2:50 p.m. on 3/4/10.)
With the Legislature reaching a deal to close the $800 million shortfall late Sunday, party leaders referred to the intimidating difficulties they will face in next year’s session when legislators will have to deal with a projected $3 billion shortfall in the next biennium.
On the table, most [...]
CARSON CITY – Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert said in an interview today that GOP agreement to include a new fee on banks in the final budget deal approved by the Legislature early today was in exchange for support for keeping Nevada State Prison open.
Gov. Jim Gibbons had proposed to close the aging facility as [...]
(Updated at 1:47 a.m. on March 1, 2010)
CARSON CITY – As a deal to close an $805 million budget gap was announced today, bringing a close to a sometimes rancorous six-day special session, Republican lawmakers say they helped shape the debate that led to a minimal use of taxes and fees to balance the spending [...]
Republican Senator Stan Olsen cast his first vote since taking office as one of only five Nevada legislators to say “Nay” to the bill amending NRS 386.650 in a way that would allow Nevada to qualify for federal Race to the Top grants.
Olsen, who was chosen by the Clark County Commission to replace Senator Warren [...]
A source inside Governor Gibbon’s office today said Gibbons will not veto the Race to the Top education bill passed Wednesday evening by the state Senate and Assembly during the special session of the Legislature.
A Gibbons spokesperson told the Las Vegas Review Journal yesterday that he intended to veto the bill because some language in [...]
(Updated at 2:37 p.m. on Feb. 26, 2010)
CARSON CITY – Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley said “probably not” when asked this morning if the Legislature will have the time to consider education reform and the other measures included in Gov. Jim Gibbons proclamation for the special session now entering its fourth day.
Gibbons on Wednesday amended the [...]
CARSON CITY – Because of the tense relationship between the Legislature and Gov. Jim Gibbons over how to find $900 million to balance the state budget, strategies on how to ensure bills are not vetoed after lawmakers adjourn the special session are ready if needed.
If the Legislature adjourns the special session and Gibbons vetoes one [...]
(This story was updated at 4:59 p.m. on 3/8/09. Updates include a correction to the verbal exchange between Assemblyman Ty Cobb and Bruce Breslow on the Assembly floor during the legislative special session. You can listen to a 6:41 audio clip of Breslow’s statements on the Assembly floor here: Breslow-Cobb testimony.)
After President Obama announced his [...]
CARSON CITY – Assembly Republicans, who haven’t had a majority presence in the Legislature in 25 years, are working with their Senate colleagues in the special session in an effort to get their views heard on how to solve a $900 million budget shortfall.
Senate Republicans, who are in the minority themselves in the upper house [...]