Legislature begins Monday

The 73rd regular session of the Nevada Legislature opens for business at noon Monday.

Most of the first day will be consumed by the process of getting the Legislature up and running. Committee meetings don't start until Tuesday, and most of them will spend their first day with orientation programs for new members.

The budget committees, however, intend to get to work Tuesday morning when Senate Finance reviews the secretary of state, the Nuclear Projects Agency and state military budgets, while the Ways and Means Committee reviews the budgets for the governor and lieutenant governor's offices.

For most of the 120 days of the regular session, the debate will be driven by Gov. Kenny Guinn's budget proposals. Key among those already generating controversy are the proposed $300 million rebate through DMV registrations and the $100 million in bonds Guinn proposes to sell to prop up his Millennium Scholarship program for Nevada high school graduates.

But high on many legislative priority lists is property tax reform to counter jumps of 35 percent or more experienced in some areas of Nevada last year. Guinn didn't include any suggestion in his State of the State speech on the subject of property taxes. But there are several proposals by legislators already being drafted.

The Senate Taxation Committee and the newly formed Assembly Growth and Infrastructure Committee will meet jointly Tuesday afternoon to begin taking testimony on Nevada's property tax laws. They will hear reports from the state Taxation Department, county and city officials as well as their own Legislative Counsel Brenda Erdoes.

The millennium scholarship plan is expected to draw challenges Wednesday when Treasurer Brian Krolicki presents that budget before the Democrat-dominated Ways and Means Committee. Some lawmakers have already said they don't like the idea of using bond money for that when there is surplus money in the treasury.

Krolicki can expect similar but probably gentler questioning Friday when he takes the proposal before the Republican-dominated Senate Finance Committee.

Guinn said he put new money into a variety of programs which badly needed more support. He said education, for example, is getting some $500 million more than the past budget cycle.

After funding the state's needs, he said, there was still a surplus sitting in the state treasury.

"I believe it's really a well-thought-out budget," he said. "We have adequate funds to fund education, the prison system and to give some salary increases. So I really believe it's appropriate to give some back to the people."

The first piece of legislation of the 2005 session will be passed and sent to the governor as an emergency measure. That is SB1 which will pull $10 million out of the treasury to pay for the session.

That and nearly 70 other pieces of proposed legislation had already been pre-filed as of Friday afternoon with several hundred more expected to be filed during the first week of session as most agency bills and those generated by interim studies are put in either through the Assembly or the Senate.

Several committees have already scheduled some of the measures for hearings.

- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at nevadaappeal@sbcglobal.net or 687-8750.

Legislature facts

• Begins the first Monday in February - this year Feb. 7

• Limited by the Constitution to 120 calendar days, adjournment this year is June 6

• There are 63 legislators: 21 Senators and 42 Assembly members

• Of the 63 legislators, two Senators and 10 Assembly members are freshmen. In addition, Debbie Smith of Sparks and Bonnie Parnell of Carson City reclaimed their Assembly seats after being out during the 2003 session, Bob Beers moved from the Assembly to the Senate and former Assemblyman John Lee won a Senate seat

• To support lawmakers, the Legislative Counsel Bureau has 280 regular staff in five divisions: Legal, Research, Fiscal, Audit and Administration. During session, LCB, the Senate and Assembly hire another 260 people including committee staffs and legislative secretaries, added maintenance, police and the Sergeant At Arms staffs

• Also arriving for the session is the army of lobbyists representing everything from nonprofit groups to businesses and a variety of political causes. In the 2003 session, there were 565 paid lobbyists and another 231 nonpaid lobbyists registered