Special session for stadium could proceed in early October

A rendering shows how the proposed domed stadium for Las Vegas might look. (MANICA Architecture)

Nevada Legislature (Greg Haas/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Lawmakers seem to favor the first week of October, or just over two weeks from now, for a special session to approve a stadium funding plan.

Legislative staff probably will need a week’s notice to draft the legislation implementing the stadium financing and any other measures that might be considered by lawmakers, who spoke with the Review-Journal on the condition that they not be identified.

A one-day special session would cost about $60,000, plus costs for overtime and printing. Each additional day would add $25,000. Additional costs are dependent on how many bills would be needed and, if amendments are required, how complex they might be.

Gov. Brian Sandoval will be the one to call lawmakers into a special session. It probably won’t happen without some consensus on how to proceed with the stadium project, lawmakers said.

Sandoval can limit the session to a specific topic or topics.

It would be the 30th special session since statehood in 1864.

Sandoval called a special session in September 2014 for a tax incentive package to bring Tesla’s battery factory to Northern Nevada. He called a special session in December 2015 to consider a similar deal to bring Faraday Future’s electric car factory to Apex in Southern Nevada.

Legislators receive a salary of $146.29 per day during a special session session. The per diem rate for Carson City is $140 per day. This is intended to cover meals and hotel costs. Travel costs to and from the session also are covered.

Holding a special session so close to the Nov. 8 general election creates its own issues.

State law prohibits lawmakers running for re-election from receiving campaign contributions from the date a session is called, if the proclamation comes less than 15 days before commencement, to 15 days after final adjournment.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter.