Some disputed bills fail deadline

CARSON CITY — It was Black Friday in the Legislature when some of the most controversial bills of the 2007 session died.

Among bills drawing last breath at the deadline was Assembly Bill 248, the proposal by Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Henderson, to stop Wynn Las Vegas and other casinos from requiring dealers to share tips with casino supervisors. The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee didn’t give it a hearing.

"It died because Steve Wynn phoned (Senate Majority Leader) William Raggio and gave him his marching orders," Beers said. "Raggio moved it to the Commerce and Labor Committee, where another friend of Mr. Wynn (Chairman Randolph Townsend, R-Reno) put it in his desk."

Townsend could not be reached for comment. Raggio said Wynn indeed called him, but "he called everyone."

"All he (Wynn) was told was the bill would go to the committee it was supposed to go to. The bill belonged in Commerce and Labor by rule. That didn’t make any difference in the end."

The deadline was for Senate-approved bills to move out of Assembly committees and for Assembly-endorsed measures to emerge from Senate committees. Anything that failed to advance, with some exceptions, was dead. It’s one of many deadlines to keep lawmakers on track for a mandatory June 4 adjournment.

Also headed into oblivion was Senate Bill 14, the proposal by Sen. Mike McGinness to levy a $25 fine on teenagers younger than 18 who are caught smoking. McGinness said he could not understand why lawmakers wouldn’t want to get rid of the smokers’ corners prevalent near high schools. The Assembly Judiciary Committee didn’t give his bill a vote.

Legislative headstones were also given to Beers’ Senate Bill 325, which would have declared English as the official language of Nevada, and Senate Bill 415, the proposal by Sen. Joe Heck, R-Henderson, to deny Millennium Scholarships and loans to illegal immigrants attending state schools and universities.

Assemblyman Tick Segerblom withdrew his Assembly Bill 459 from consideration by the Senate Human Resources Committee rather than having it formally killed. The bill would have set up a teachers’ bill of rights that would make it more difficult for the Clark County School District to fire teachers.

Democrats control the Assembly 27-15, and Republicans hold the edge 11-10 in the Senate. So the failure of some bills may have been based on the philosophical differences between the two houses.

"You don’t need to pass every bill," said Assembly Minority Leader Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas.

"We worked very hard to develop good policy," added Assembly Government Affairs Chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas.

For example, Kirkpatrick said, 90 percent of the provisions in Beers’ English-as-an-official language bill already are in law and so it wasn’t needed.

Beers didn’t see it that way.

"I would assume the Assembly majority didn’t like it or feared it," he said.

But bills still can be revived, Beers noted.

There have been "more bills resurrected in the last three sessions than in a century of Easters," he said, adding: "The citizens aren’t safe yet."

According to sources, one measure that will be resurrected is Senate Joint Resolution 2, the proposed constitutional amendment sought by Raggio, R-Reno.

Under the resolution, Nevada would adopt a "Missouri Plan" of appointing — instead of electing — district judges and Supreme Court justices.

SJR2 would require judges to be initially appointed; their names later would appear on the ballot for retention or rejection by the voters.

Bills in the Legislature that called for expenditures were exempt from the Friday deadline.

Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, noted that all bills affecting the proposed $6.8 billion state budget, such as those that fund education, are still alive.

Also saved from the axe were bills that could lead to funding of major state highways and roads.

Two significant bills were signed into law Friday by Gov. Jim Gibbons.

One was Buckley’s Senate Bill 261 requiring child welfare agencies to release more information about children in their care who die or are critically injured.

The bill was introduced in response to a study that found 11 children died of abuse while in protective custody of Clark County’s Department of Child and Family Services between 2001 and 2004.

A state Department of Health and Human Services analysis found that 79 other deaths of children during the same period should have been investigated by Clark County Family Services but were not.

"When things go wrong, government’s first instinct is to not provide the information because they are going to look bad," Buckley said during a hearing. "If children are dying in our care, and we are not taking steps to prevent it from happening again, we are as guilty as the person who did it in the first place."