The halls of the Nevada Legislature were relatively silent with about 90 minutes remaining Monday night in the 81st legislative session.
Lobbyists and members of the public had mostly left. All that remained was the clock striking midnight.
There would be no late drama as multiple big-ticket proposals that were expected to be heard until the buzzer each passed earlier in the evening with little pushback.
Bills approved on the final day of the session will enhance voter access, help fund education, and allow marijuana consumption lounges.
The most significant action was the state Senate and Assembly approving a proposal for an additional tax on the mining industry that will bring the state more than $20 million in new revenue. The proposal also calls for mining taxes currently sent to the state general fund to instead be sent specifically toward education. In 2019, that tax was about $120 million.
The quiet was broken by the gavel around midnight, and the cheers from lawmakers who, after 120 days in Carson City, could go home.
Here’s a look at the last day:
No movement on casino gun ban proposal
A proposal backed by MGM Resort International to strengthen penalties imposed on people who bring guns into certain resorts and casinos where they are prohibited was not introduced for a vote in the Assembly after it passed in the state Senate last week.
The policy would have allowed security officers at large resorts and casinos to call law enforcement to report visitors suspected of carrying weapons in firearm-free zones without being required to give them verbal warnings.
Supporters said the measure would have prevented gun violence, aligning firearm restriction enforcement on the Las Vegas Strip with what is in place for public schools and libraries. Democrats and Republicans opposed to the bill said police would be called about people of color at disproportionate rates. They also said the policy could create unnecessary and dangerous confrontations.
—Sam Metz, Associated Press
Mail-in ballot approved
Assembly Bill 321, which would automatically send mail-in ballots to active, registered voters in Nevada, passed through the Senate on a 12-9 party-line vote.
The bill locks in many of the changes put into place during a 2020 special session to make voting more accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been generally opposed by Republicans, who in statehouses nationwide are mostly voting for measures designed to limit voting access — especially in communities of color.
Fiscal notes released in May from the secretary of state’s office claimed the bill would create $5.7 million more in cost each fiscal year, though Democratic leadership has disagreed with that price tag.
Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson, D-Las Vegas, said the inability to get bipartisan support on the bill seemed to be due to a “national, philosophical debate about elections.”
Frierson reiterated that Nevada did not see a spike in voter fraud during the pandemic and the resulting expansion of voting options. There has been no credible report of widespread voter fraud in Nevada or elsewhere during the 2020 elections.
“When it comes to access to democracy, Nevada has been leading and I’m pleased that we were able to take a step forward,” Frierson said.
Marijuana consumption lounges coming to Nevada
Ever since recreational cannabis dispensaries opened in Nevada in July 2017, the problem of exactly where people — especially visitors — could consume the product has lingered.
Consumption is only allowed in a private residence, a rule that’s hardly followed, especially along the resort corridor.
Lawmakers have found an answer to the problem, passing Assembly Bill 341 by a 17-3 bipartisan vote in the state Senate to legalize cannabis consumption lounges.
“For (tourists), it means they can have some certainty,” said Assemblyman Steve Yeager, D-Las Vegas, who proposed the legislation. “When people ask, ‘Where can I consume?,’ we actually have a place where we can tell them you can consume here, here, here and here in these consumption lounges.’”
The bill allows existing dispensary license holders to operate one consumption lounge, and also calls for independent lounges separate from retail dispensaries. A dispensary owner cannot own an independent lounge, and is restricted to one lounge license.
Independent lounges could sell single-use cannabis products, which will be further defined by the Cannabis Compliance Board. Alcohol will not be allowed to be sold in any consumption lounge.
Massage, yoga, Pilates and restaurants are some of the businesses that advocates have said could be combined with the single-use lounge licenses.
“There’s a lot of really interesting concepts. The question’s going to be, you’ve got to make money on it, right?” Yeager said. “What concept can you come up with that’s attractive enough where you can be profitable apart from selling the single-use cannabis products?”
Democrats get support from Republicans in passing mining tax
A late-session measure meant to direct significant mining tax revenue toward K-12 education has passed through both chambers of the Nevada Legislature with bipartisan support.
Assembly Bill 494 had been hashed out behind the scenes between affected interest groups, including the Clark County Education Association and the Nevada Mining Association, in the final days of the session. It was approved with about eight hours remaining, and most important, approved by a two-thirds majority need for a tax increase. It passed 28-14 in the Assembly and 16-5 in the state Senate.
The Republicans who joined with Democrats in supporting the bill were Assemblyman Tom Roberts, R-Las Vegas; Assemblywoman Jill Tolles, R-Reno; Sen. Scott Hammond, R-Las Vegas; Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno; Sen. Keith Pickard, R-Henderson; and Sen. Heidi Seevers Gansert, R-Reno.
On the floor, Roberts said the COVID-19 pandemic had magnified the importance of teachers and touted the plan’s buy-in from the affected industry.
“We have been assured by mining companies affected that not a single job will be lost while education revenue (is raised) for opportunity scholarships, charters schools and public schools in the process,” Roberts said.
Wrangling Republican support for the bill involved some legislative concessions from Democrats, including funding for charter schools and school choice programs like the Opportunity Scholarship program.
Under the measure, mining taxes currently sent to the state general fund would instead be sent specifically toward education. In 2019, mining taxes brought in around $122 million to the state.
The bill also creates a tiered tax structure for the gross revenue of silver and gold mines. Under the legislation, a 0.75% excise tax rate would be applied on mines making $20 million to $150 million and a 1.1% tax would be applied on mines that make more.
Tyre Gray, president of the Nevada Mining Association, said in a statement that the bill produces a middle ground between protecting mining jobs and funding education in the state.
“The Clark County Education Association worked alongside us to find a resolution that will bring the state much closer to the national average of per-pupil funding and change the narrative surrounding mining from ‘fair share’ to ‘partners,’” he said.
In 2020, the Clark County Education Association announced it had gathered enough ballots to bring forward gaming and sales tax increases on the 2022 ballot. The existence of the ballot questions, along with possible mining tax increase introduced in a 2020 special session, provided leverage to the negotiations.
John Vellardita, president of the Clark County Education Association, said the ballot initiatives’ existence contributed to the deal going through.
“It was the right thing to do. It wasn’t a surprise,” Vellardita said. “We felt pretty confident going in that we had the votes, that the right people were making the right decisions.”
In a statement after the bill’s passage, Gov. Steve Sisolak said the bill is “one of the most significant steps” Nevada could take on education.
“Today’s historic vote was only made possible thanks to the partnership of education leaders, business and industry, a bipartisan group of legislators, stakeholders and community members,” Sisolak said in a statement. “Our comeback will be strengthened by the continued collaboration and efforts of all Nevadans committed to working together for our families and a brighter future.”
Traffic ticket decriminalization
Assembly Bill 116, which decriminalizes many traffic citations, passed on a 20-1 vote in the state Senate, with only Sen. Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, in opposition. It is the fifth time that lawmakers have tried to pass such a bill.
The bill will change many minor traffic violations from criminal to civil infractions, ending the ability of police to arrest those with unpaid infractions.
Nevada is one of only 13 states that still allow the practice.
State Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas, said that letting the criminal justice system deal with traffic citations often just results in unnecessary jail time.
“As someone who, in my daily job, deals with the criminal justice system, I think that there are ways in which that system is exceedingly ineffective to deal with certain situations,” said Cannizzaro, a deputy district attorney. “I think that traffic tickets are something that squarely fall easily in that box.”
Farewell to the Nevada caucuses
Assembly Bill 126, which implements a primary system in Nevada to replace caucuses, passed the Senate on a 15-6 vote, with Sens. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, and Heidi Seevers Gansert, R-Reno, voting with Democrats to pass the measure.
Many prominent Democrats, including former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, called for the abolition of caucuses entirely after the 2020 Iowa caucuses saw a significant delay in results due to issues with reporting voting totals.
The bill will also set up a likely fight with New Hampshire, the state which currently is first in the presidential primary process. Under the bill, Nevada will hold a presidential primary on the first Tuesday in February in a presidential election year.
This puts Nevada ahead of New Hampshire, which holds its primary on the second Tuesday in March. However, the New Hampshire secretary of state has the power to unilaterally move the election date to seven days before any “similar” election.
Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson, D-Las Vegas, has said it is up to Nevada’s lawmakers to make the case to early-nominating states and both major parties that the Silver State should go first.
“I’m not a legislator in New Hampshire or in Iowa (or) in any of the other states that have historically gone early,” Frierson said in a past interview. “But I know Nevada better represents the population of the country than those states.”
While the bill will have no fiscal impact in the current biennium, the secretary of state’s office has estimated a price tag of $5.2 million for future elections.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.