Bills advance at Legislature

With their 2009 session scheduled to end on Monday, Nevada lawmakers kept working over the weekend on still-pending measures covering a wide range of issues.

The Assembly gave final legislative approval on Saturday to AB148, a worker safety measure that stems from the deaths of 12 workers at Las Vegas Strip construction sites over an 18-month period.

The bill requires 10 hours of safety training for employees and 30 hours of safety training for supervisors. Companies would have to drop workers who don't get the training in a timely manner.

Assembly members also signed off on Senate amendments to AB65, increasing fees for filing various court documents, and sent the plan to the governor. The revenue is to be used to help cover costs of nine new judgeships in Las Vegas and one in Reno that would be created under AB64.

The Senate passed AB561, which eliminates the state Consumer Affairs Division for the next two fiscal years. The action returned the bill to the Assembly for concurrence in a Senate amendment.

Senators also passed AB521, which expands health care coverage for full-time, salaried firefighters exposed to carcinogens on the job. That bill also returns to the Assembly for a review of a Senate amendment.

The Assembly accepted a conference report on AB130, which provides that only the Las Vegas Metro sheriff or his representatives are required to negotiate union contracts. Representatives of Clark County and Las Vegas would be observers. They now have seats at the bargaining table.

The Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee endorsed an amended version of AB82 which makes numerous changes to Nevada election laws, including creation of an electronic database that would allow people to register to vote online.

Also Saturday, the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee tabled AB190, which called for a study of the costs of capital punishment cases in Nevada. Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, pushed for tabling the bill, saying it was part of an effort to eventually do away with the death penalty in Nevada.