Begins Feb. 4, 2013
The 120 day session ends June 3, 2013
By Janine Hansen
As the Nevada Legislature begins we are reminded of Mark Twain’s salient remarks, “No man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the Legislature is in session.”
Mark Twain understood the power of the Legislature. We would be well advised to pay attention to what is happening in Carson City over the next four months…
There are, as of Jan. 29, 2013, 893 “Bill Draft Requests” or BDR’s, some of the BDR’s have already become bills which you can read on the Legislative website at www.leg.state.nv.us. There are 72 Assembly Bills and 74 Senate Bills as of today. There will be more proposed legislation as the deadline for Legislators BDR requests is Feb. 11 and Feb. 18 for Committee BDR requests. In addition, there will be budget bills and leadership bills which really have no deadline.
BDR’s are available just as a single sentence giving us a glimpse of what they will be. When they become bills, AB (Assembly Bill), SB (Senate Bill), etc. we can have access to the entire bills as they are originally introduced. I wanted to share with you a glimpse of what is coming.
There are dozens of bills regarding Elections, the worst of which will be Secretary of State Ross Miller’s SB63. During the last two Sessions, Miller’s elections bills have been an assault on freedom speech, petition and assembly. One bill would have made it far more difficult for non- incumbents or challengers to run for office increasing filing fees in some cases by 600%. In another bill he would have made same day voting with no pre-voter registration required opening our elections to fraud. BS63 contains an unfunded mandate to county clerks which will cost millions of dollars.
Another huge category of BDR’s is education. There are some good ones which include those providing for school choice and vouchers. Unfortunately, they are balanced out by those seeking to eliminate testing requirements for graduation, require full-day kindergarten, and early childhood education. Of course all proposals, except school choice and vouchers, will cost the taxpayers more.
We will see taxation bills. Republican Governor Sandoval plans to ask for the extension of the modified business tax which hurts small business and curtails hiring of new employees. We will see how that pans out as Republican Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson has fallen under the spell and power of big government/big business and has publicly supported the extension of the supposed- to-be-sunsetted tax. Interestingly enough, some Democrats have recognized that this tax does actually hurt employees and curtail hiring and may oppose the tax and propose some other tax to take its place.
Many bills on firearms/self defense have been in the works even since 2011. BDR 615 is similar to one proposed in the previous session. It authorized the possession of a concealed firearm on Nevada’s college campuses, which are now “gun free zones”. As it now stands, our young people are without self-protection on the campuses. In addition, there are numerous bills to secure and improve the laws regarding concealed carry. BDR 307 creates a “Committee to Review Suicide Fatalities”. This is always a red flag because these often trickle down through the United Nations which is seeking to eradicate gun possession because guns are sometimes used for suicide.
An assault on the traditional family is planned with bills to give special protections for gender preference, identity or expression, and challenge the Constitutional Amendment passed by the people on marriage.
In an interesting turn, we see some potential Democrat bills to redirect the purchasing of state government to provide for a buy American and within the state. We salute this effort as our state sovereignty and economy has been undermined by multinational treaties like NAFTA, GATT and WTO.
Encouraging are BDR’s named the “Nevada Liberty Preservation Act” to protect Nevadans from the National Defense Authorization Act by Senator Gustavson and “Sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment” by Senator Settlemeyer. However, we can expect that since the Democrats reign, there will be little or no return to Constitutional principles this session.
Numerous BDR’s have been introduced regarding illegal immigration. These have nearly all failed in the past. We will see something new, a proposal labeled. as “driver privilege card” which is a drivers license for illegals. This proposal seems to have surfaced among both political parties.
There are many proposals which are indistinguishable as to future content concerning health which will have to be ferreted out.
One interesting BDR, submitted by Republican Senator Hutchison, “Eliminates legislator’s salaries and redirects the money to the state funding for education” while another by Democrat Speaker Kirkpatrick, “provides for the voluntary transfer of a portion of Legislator’s salaries to the State General Fund.” Maybe if they weren’t getting paid as much, our pocketbooks might be safer.
There are many proposals on public land issues, including BDR’s on the sage grouse, wild horses, grazing, hunting and use by the public of so-called “public lands”. One BDR will seek to follow Utah’s lead in returning control of usurped federal land to state control.
The Brianna Dennison bill from last session will resurface seeking to take the DNA of people who have only been arrested and not convicted. Their DNA will go into the FBI’s CODIS Database and never be removed even if they are innocent. As tragic as the circumstances which are being used to promote this bill, we have a Bill of Rights in which we are innocent until proven guilty. I know…a novel concept in this police state into which we have descended.
The final date for Legislators’ bills to be introduced is March 18 with Committee bills on March 25. After that the only new bills will be budget or leadership bills. The first looming deadline for nearly all bills to have passed out of the first committee will be April 8, 2013. After that, the warning of Mark Twain will become more clearly evident.