GOP off to fast start in Legislature

CARSON CITY — Republican lawmakers made it clear in the first week of the 2015 legislative session that there is a new sheriff in town.

On the first day Feb. 2, Republicans raised the spectre of a GOP-dominated legislative redistricting effort when they approved the joint Senate and Assembly rules governing the session. The rules were amended to include the potential redistricting issue but without a public participation component, raising the ire of Senate Democrats.

Redistricting is required after every 10-year census and so does not have to happen again until 2021, but nothing would prohibit an earlier effort. It is not clear whether Republicans plan to pursue the redrawing of legislative districts this session but the possibility will loom over the entire session.

And three days into the 120-day session there were hearings on bills seeking to remove the prevailing wage requirement from public education and university construction projects and to allow weapons on school grounds in locked vehicles.

Both measures were opposed by Democratic lawmakers in the hearings.

Republicans aren’t just hearing bills that support their agenda, they are passing them as well. Two days after a contentious hearing, Senate Bill 119, which includes a school bond rollover measure with the prevailing wage exemptions, was passed out of the Senate Government Affairs Committee on a party line 3-1 vote. It moves on to the full Senate and then the Assembly for further hearings.

But the bill could be on Gov. Brian Sandoval’s desk sooner rather than later. The measure requires a simple majority vote, so Democrats have no ability to stop it from being signed into law.

The new Republican majority has wasted no time in setting its agenda for the session and is unlikely to let up until adjournment on June 1.

THIS WEEK: MORE OF THE SAME

This week could see a hearing in the Assembly Judiciary Committee on another GOP objective: construction defect reform. Assembly Bill 125 addressing the issue was introduced in the Assembly on Friday.

Other controversial GOP-backed bills introduced Friday include Assembly Bill 120, clarifying the rights of public school pupils regarding the free exercise of religion; and Assembly Bill 127, which would limit the authority of local governments to regulate firearms and reserve such authority to the Legislature. Assembly Speaker John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas, a sponsor of the bill, said it would do away with the gun registration requirement that exists now in Clark County.

Senate Democrats have criticized the moves in a series of press releases, and have taken to Twitter to voice their displeasure with the actions of Republicans in the first week of the session.

Democratic votes will be crucial, however for Sandoval to get his education funding and revenue plans through the Legislature. Much of his agenda will require a two-thirds vote, which means at least some Democrats will have to be on board.

Senate Assistant Majority Leader Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, said GOP lawmakers plan to continue to press forward with changes they have sought for decades without success in a Legislature controlled at least in part by Democrats.

The equation changed on Nov. 4 when Republicans shocked observers by winning control of the Assembly for the first time in 20 years. The Senate also turned to GOP control. With Sandoval, another Republican, easily winning a second term as governor, the GOP controls the Legislature and the governor’s office for the first time since 1929.

Kieckhefer said Democrats are having to come to terms, for the first time in years, with being in the minority.

“I think you are likely to see policy discussions on a weekly basis that make people uncomfortable,” he said. “The fact of the matter is we have a serous backlog in reforms that are necessary to make our government efficient and effective.

“We are going to process legislation pretty quickly in this building,” Kieckhefer said.

OTHER GOP ISSUES

Some of the issues Republicans want to consider are changes to construction defect law, prevailing wage, tort reform and collective bargaining. Second Amendment issues are also a high priority for some GOP lawmakers.

“So its a different process for them, and I understand that, and they may not like it, but it is something I’ve dealt with for the last four years,” Kieckhefer said. “And I didn’t do it by sending out a bunch of press releases and mean-spirited tweets.”

Kieckhefer said he believes Democrats want to see a better education system and so will support additional revenue to fund it.

“If they decide not to vote for that, they’re going to have to wear it,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas, said he remains optimistic that Democrats and Republicans will be able to work together and that the first week won’t be the model for the rest of the session.

“Elections have consequences but that does not mean that Democrats have abandoned their priorities,” he said.

The many witnesses who testified against the prevailing wage exemptions in SB119 on Wednesday was the result of a coordinated effort on the part of the Democratic caucus and the groups that wanted to be heard on the issue, Ford said.

It wasn’t just union representatives who testified, but business people who objected to what Ford called the “bastardization” of a bond rollover bill sought by Sen. Debbie Smith, D-Sparks. Smith has been absent from the session because of a health issue.

The rollover provision of the bill would allow school districts to issue construction bonds without voter approval as long as property tax rates do not increase. There is bonding ability without raising rates because older debt has been retired.

BOND BILL DEAL ‘ABANDONED’

Southern Nevada lawmakers of both parties and both chambers endorsed Smith’s bill before the session, he said.

“They abandoned that agreement and put in a partisan bill that divided everyone on the third day of the session,” Ford said. “And that’s a bad start to bipartisanship.”

Kieckhefer said SB119 won’t get enough Republican support to pass the Legislature without the prevailing wage exemptions. In testimony on Wednesday he said exempting the school projects will make the money go further.

Opponents argue that the prevailing wage law does not add that much to the cost of a public project and helps ensure local workers get the jobs. There are also concerns about the quality of construction if low-bidders from out of state win the construction contracts.

The bill would exempt school projects from Nevada’s prevailing wage law, which requires contractors who win publicly financed construction projects to pay workers according to a wage schedule established by the state’s labor commissioner. The original purpose of the law was to require local wage rates to be paid on public projects so that out-of-state competitors could not come in and undercut the local labor pool.

Assembly Minority Leader Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, was not as critical of the GOP actions in the first week.

“At the end of the day we all have to work together at the end to get things done,” she said.

When Democrats were in leadership the committees worked on educating members on the issues before processing legislation, Kirkpatrick said.

“But they’ve decided to jump in with bills, and that’s great,” she said.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Find him on Twitter: @seanw801.