Updates from the Legislature
We have completed Week 17 of the 17-week session, as well as two special sessions.
This week’s newsletter covers week 17, as well as the three following days of the regular session. This newsletter also includes a discussion of the Special Sessions that occurred between June 6th and June 12th.
Sine die was for the regular session was at midnight on Monday, June 5th. The 82nd session of the Nevada Legislature is over. At the end there was almost a panic by the Democrat majority to get bills passed. A number of bills died at midnight because they ran out of time to push things trough. On the Senate side, the Republicans blocked the Democrat’s attempt to pass the Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) bill in an attempt to get charter school teacher raises. However, the Democrats and the Governor after many amendments did reach an agreement on the state budget (except CIP) and the bills to support that were passed before Sine die.
The first Special Session was in the evening of Tuesday, June 6th. This session addressed a single bill for the CIP. The Republicans again wanted a charter school teacher pay raise amended into the bill. However, the Democrats leaders of the Senate and Assembly had no interest in adjusting the pay and, according to the rules of the Senate and Assembly, only they could propose amendments to bills during a special session. A part of the CIP bill includes a continued dedication of specific taxes to the payment of the bonds issued for the projects requiring capital investment. The bill passed with one Republican vote in the Senate and three in the Assembly. I voted for this bill for three main reasons: the bill did not include any new taxes, it ensured that the state would not have to default on its bonds, and the Governor asked for Republican votes on the bill.
The second Special Session commenced on Wednesday, June 7th and concluded, Sine die, on Wednesday, June 14th. This session addressed the baseball stadium for the relocation of the Athletics Major Baseball League team from Oakland, California to Las Vegas. The bill passed with mixed support from both Republicans and Democrats. I voted for the bill as I believe that it will bring a substantial amount of tax revenue and jobs to the state without any increase in taxes.
I want to thank everyone for your thoughts and comments on the newsletters during the session. They were very helpful and kept me going. The newsletter will be taking June and July off and then will start up again in August as a monthly update until the next session.
If there is an item that you want to discuss, please contact me at 775-4766-2321, or email me at my campaign email, rich@delongfornevada.com (I will NOT be checking my assembly email on a regular basis).
Have a great summer! I am glad to be representing all of you in District 26.
Rich DeLong
Assemblyman, District 26
Minority Whip