Taxes, state budget to dominate 2015 Legislative session in Carson City

After almost two months of tooth gnashing and drama surrounding whether Nevada needs more tax revenue to run state government, the 2015 Legislature begins the process of figuring that out on Monday.

The tradition-bound process of convening the session is supposed to begin at 11 a.m. but newcomers will probably get their first taste of what veterans call “legislative time” when the appointed hour slides quietly by.

Once the two houses are “organized and ready for business,” the session should get off to a flying start since there are already more than 200 proposed pieces of legislation in the list of “pre-filed bills” — 102 in each house.

The focus of debate thus far has been on taxes with the conservative wing of the Assembly GOP pushing to win enough support to block any increases in what individuals or businesses pay in Nevada.

Whether or not the so-called “Tea Party” wing has the votes to claim control in the Assembly will be laid out almost immediately when the lower house votes to pick its leadership. If Assemblyman John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas, wins the Speaker’s chair as expected, that will at least temporarily quell the rebellion.

Once named speaker, he will have the authority to name not only his majority leader but the committee chairs for the session.

Caucus members say that’s exactly what will happen Monday.

While taxes has garnered the headlines, others in the party say control of both houses and the Governor’s Mansion present a golden opportunity to change some things Democrats have long blocked.

Chief among those are reforms to collective bargaining by public employees, related issues in K-12 education and construction defects.

Whatever lawmakers do, they have to get it done in 120 calendar days — including weekends and holidays.

If they don’t because the session is as raucous as some fear, they’ll have to finish the job in special session. Lawmakers can call themselves into special session by a two-thirds vote of each house. But if a battle over taxes and the size of the budget prevents them from finishing their work in 120 days, it might also be difficult to get consensus on what should be on the table.

In that case, Gov. Brian Sandoval would likely call the special session, in which case he — not lawmakers — would set the agenda.

Sandoval has proposed significant increases in funding for K-12 education and expansion of programs including English Language Learners and all-day kindergarten, other members of his own party are charging all he’s doing is throwing more money at the same old programs. That tactic, they argue, hasn’t moved the needle and Nevada is at or near the bottom of every measure of educational success.

They want teacher performance to be a key in whether an educator keeps his or her job, changes in tenure and other rules so that veteran teachers they say aren’t performing can be removed. And they want much broader “school choice” options for parents.

In collective bargaining, several proposals have called for incremental change but there are members who say the entire system is broken — not just in education but in public safety and other parts of local government — and needs to be thrown out.

Assembly Judiciary Chairman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, says his focus will be on the construction defects issue. Hansen, himself a plumbing contractor, said his job will be to fix the problems in existing law — especially the provisions guaranteeing lawyers who bring those cases their fees. He said those fees are often so high, insurance companies simply settle even when they have a good defense. He also said the statute needs a much better definition of what is a construction defect.

Beyond that, there are all the other issues which arise each session from the bill by Sen. Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas, to tighten rules about who can get tax credits for bringing film productions to Nevada to Democratic Sen. Tick Segerblom’s bill removing blockades to restoration of voting and other civil rights for convicted felons.

The issue of how to prevent the dangerously mentally ill from getting guns will also resurface this session along with legislation to tweak the new medical marijuana law and provide, among other things, a practical way to collect taxes on pot products. And one proposed law would impose the existing tobacco tax on e-cigarettes.

But when all is said and done, every legislative session is centered on the state budget.

Despite the cuts made throughout the recession, the governor’s recommended budget this session is the highest in state history at $7.3 billion in General Fund spending and a total of $25.5 billion when federal and all other funding is added in.

Just three broad categories consume more than 90 percent of the General Fund budget: education (K-12 and University), human services and public safety.

In the overall budget, human services programs — driven by entitlement programs such as Medicaid, total nearly half of all spending at $9.88 billion.

The 102 pre-filed bills in each house will be rapidly and pretty much automatically referred to standing committees that are planning to start hearings within the week.

To expedite the budget process, the Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees hear everything in joint session. That process begins Friday with a review of the Health and Human Services Director’s Office spending plan.