Nevada
CARSON CITY — Some of the Legislature’s most progressive members were not happy Tuesday about grades they received from the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada on their votes on racial equity issues in the 2009 session.
CARSON CITY — Legislative leaders emerged from a closed-door meeting with Gov. Jim Gibbons on Wednesday to insist that nothing more can be cut from the state budget, though a shortfall of $2.4 billion could prompt them to increase taxes when the Legislature next goes into session in 2011.
CARSON CITY — Gov. Jim Gibbons said Tuesday that he already has begun talking with legislative leaders about potential cuts that might be necessary because of declining tax revenue and could require action in a special legislative session.
CARSON CITY — Nevada’s AmeriCorps volunteer program is threatened because Gov. Jim Gibbons and lawmakers didn’t approve $365,000 in state funds to qualify for $7.5 million in federal money.
CARSON CITY — This July 1 forever might be remembered as Black Wednesday in the annals of Nevada state government. Most of the record $1 billion in tax increases approved by the 2009 Legislature will go into effect on that day. And for the first time since the end of World War II, state employees will be hit with pay cuts.
They came to celebrate the passage of Nevada’s domestic partnership law, but many simply viewed the event as a celebration of equality.
CARSON CITY — For members of the Spending and Government Efficiency Commission, the 2009 Legislature was a mixed bag.
State Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, resigned from the Legislature on Tuesday in order to focus on lobbying for the builders association he works for.
Three months ago, the leaders of the Las Vegas Valley’s three largest police forces sat side-by-side in a Carson City hearing room and implored lawmakers to raise the county sales tax again to fund more officers.
It would seem the Nevada Legislature is finally finished taking a scouring pad to the state’s shiny image as the Southwest’s friendliest place to do business. Indeed, the 2009 biennial session of the state Assembly and Senate is over, its patchwork of cuts in services and taxes on businesses passed to prop up the skeletal remains of a once booming landscape. The tax increases were pushed through over the very vocal objections of the state’s beleaguered governor; the cuts were orchestrated to make the wounds less deep for businesses, which appear to have meekly gone along with the program.
CARSON CITY — Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry said Wednesday he is stunned by Gov. Jim Gibbons’ veto of his bill to fund low-interest loans for small- business owners.
CARSON CITY — Gov. Jim Gibbons on Tuesday vetoed five more bills, including one to make the Clark County sheriff or his designee the sole negotiator for contracts with the police officers union.
CARSON CITY — Gov. Jim Gibbons said Tuesday there is a good chance he will have to call a special session of the Legislature sometime over the next year and a half because he doubts the tax increases approved by lawmakers will produce the revenue they expected.
CARSON CITY — Gov. Jim Gibbons signed into law Monday a bill that makes it a felony to intentionally view child pornography over the Internet.