It’s time to start working late at the Nevada Legislature

Gov. Brian Sandoval speaks to the Review-Journal editorial board on Friday, Jan. 30, 2015, about his plan to raise taxes to bring in more money for education. (Mark Damon/Las Vegas Review-Journal file)

Nevada Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson warned lawmakers to prepare for more late nights this week as the Senate continues its dive into the details of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s business license fee proposal.

Roberson, R-Henderson, said the Senate will convene tonight as a “committee of the whole” to talk about Senate Bill 252.

The bill is the cornerstone of Sandoval’s $1.1 billion package of new and extended taxes to fund his education agenda. The business license fee proposal would replace the existing $200 annual flat rate with a tiered schedule ranging from $400 up to $4 million.

A joint hearing of the Senate Revenue and Assembly Tax committees lasted nearly 10 hours Wednesday. The Senate then considered it as a committee Thursday during a three-hour session.

Today is also a deadline for committee bill introductions, which could mean evening floor sessions unless lawmakers suspend their own rules to extend the deadline as they have done before.

Roberson said he’s prepared to hold multiple night hearings this week on SB252, in addition to regularly scheduled afternoon Senate Revenue Committee meetings. That committee is scheduled to consider an alternative tax plan, Senate Bill 378 sponsored by state Sen. Pat Spearman, D-North Las Vegas, on Tuesday.

— Sandra Chereb

SANDOVAL FIRES UP FEDS

Western governors led by Gov. Brian Sandoval have reaffirmed their support for congressional efforts to end a practice called “fire borrowing,” in which the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior take funds from other accounts to pay for firefighting.

In a letter to the leadership of the Committee on the Budget in the Senate and House, Sandoval said the practice reinforces the damaging wildfire cycle.

The borrowing occurs because federal wildfire budgets have not increased to meet the escalating trend of wildfires in the West.

“The current funding situation has allowed severe wildfires to burn through crippling amounts of the very funds that should instead be used to prevent and reduce wildfire impacts and costs,” Sandoval, chairman of the Western Governors’ Association, said in the letter. “This represents an unacceptable set of outcomes for taxpayers, at-risk communities, and responsible stewardship of federal land.”

Sandoval said Western governors are encouraged that bipartisan legislation, including the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act (S. 235, H.R. 167), has been proposed to address the issue.

“This legislation would solve the budgetary issue by creating a funding structure similar to that used by other federal agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, when responding to natural disasters,” he said.

— Sean Whaley

NEW NORTH LAS VEGAS WEBSITE

North Las Vegas’ website is getting a makeover. It’s going to cost the cash-strapped city $74,100. That’s the price tag the City Council agreed to Wednesday after a presentation by city spokesman Mitch Fox, who spearheaded the effort.

Fox said no one asked him to redesign the website, but when he started with the city a year ago he made a website revamp a goal. North Las Vegans deserve a site that is visually stunning, easy to use and a point of pride, he told the council.

“A one-stop-shop for everything North Las Vegas,” Fox said.

Six companies responded to the bid, and two were chosen to give presentations on what they could offer. The winner was Revize. The company is self-described as “The Government Website Experts” and, according to its website, its designs include sites for Polk County, N.C., Bell County, Texas and Duluth, Ga.

The finished product will allow residents to share city information through social media and include tools that adjust font size, read text allowed and translate information into roughly 80 languages.

— Bethany Barnes

Contact Bethany Barnes at bbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Find her on Twitter: @betsbarnes. Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Find him on Twitter: @seanw801. Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901. Find her on Twitter: @SandraChereb.