Some lawmakers considering annual sessions
Is it time for the Nevada Legislature to hold annual sessions?
That's the question on some lawmakers' minds as they meet this week in a special session called by Gov. Jim Gibbons to solve the worst budget crisis in state history.
The 26th special session is the 10th one held since 1998 when voters approved a measure to limit the biennial regular sessions to 120 days because lawmakers couldn't seem to wrap up business quickly.
Counting 2010, seven of those 10 special sessions focused on the budget, including one each in 2005 and 2007 and two each in 2003 and 2008.
All special sessions except those in 2003 -- when there was a major tax debate -- and 2010 were one or two day extensions of the regular legislative session.
Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson, is considering introducing a bill during the 2011 Legislature that would allow holding 30-day sessions every other year just to deal with money issues.
Woodhouse is working with Assemblyman Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, on the idea.
"My thought is rather than be reactive we can be proactive," in dealing with the budget, Woodhouse said.
Gibbons called the 2010 special session because the recession blew the two-year, $6.9 billion general fund budget.
The state expects an $887 million shortfall because of declining tax collections, requiring lawmakers and the governor to cut spending and raise more revenue.
Normally, the Interim Finance Committee can handle budget adjustments, and it was created in 1969 to do just that. But the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression threw things into turmoil.
Still, the idea of annual sessions has never caught on in Nevada, which prides itself on having a citizen Legislature.
"If you want good people coming into the process you don't want a full-time Legislature," said Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno. "You don't need to have people here full time."
Cost is another factor.
It's far cheaper to hold a special session as needed than to hold even a truncated session focused on the budget, according to Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.
A special session costs about $100,000 on the first day and $50,000 every day after, Malkiewich said.
That's partly because staffing is about one-tenth of the normal level of 100 staffers per house, he said.
A normal session of 120 days costs about $20 million, Malkiewich said.
So a 30-day budget session could cost as much as $5 million, although he said it might be done for $2 million to $3 million.
"Some people have argued that it would reduce costs, but the argument is one more of policy," Malkiewich said of annual sessions.
The longest regular session was 169 days in 1995, which prompted Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, to push to limit them to 120 days.
Two Legislatures passed the bill and voters approved it.
The shortest regular session was 50 days in 1893, but they grew to regularly be in the 160-day range in the 1990s.
Nevada is one of only five states with citizen legislators who meet every two years to pass laws and approve budgets. The others are Oregon, Montana, North Dakota and Texas.
Voters would have to approve annual sessions, either by initiative or if the Nevada Legislature passed a bill during two successive sessions and then put the measure on the ballot for final approval.
In fact, Nevada did have one annual legislative session in 1960 after voters approved such a law to go to annual meetings.
But Guy Rocha, former state archivist, said Nevada citizens soured on the idea immediately because lawmakers spent more time playing politics than dealing seriously with the issues.
"Voters were so unhappy with the legislators for posturing for the election that they got rid of it," Rocha said. "It doesn't work here."
Contact reporter Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.
MILLENNIUM SCHOLARSHIPS
Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said Thursday that lawmakers would reduce the amount of money to be taken from Millennium Scholarship funding to be used to bridge the budget gap.
Horsford said $5 million slated for Nevada students to go to college would be used to balance the budget, and not the $12.8 million proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons.
With this change, Horsford said, the scholarship fund -- which provides $10,000 over four years to qualified high school seniors -- would remain solvent until 2015. Under Gibbons' plan, fears were expressed by college students during hearings that funds could run out by 2011.
"We extended the life of the program by four years," Horsford said.
He added he will be back with a plan at next year's regular session to make the scholarship program solvent far into the future.
"We made a commitment to high school students when we started the Millennium Scholarship that they would have access to a higher education," Horsford said.
