Slow start to 2021 Nevada Legislature

The 81st season of that biennial production known as the Nevada Legislature kicked off last week like molasses being poured through a strainer in the dead of winter.

But that snail’s pace comes at least partly by design.

This session began amid continued lockdown provisions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. The Senate and Assembly are largely sequestered. Though lawmakers gather for floor sessions, committee meetings are held virtually and online, not in committee rooms. Senate and Assembly committees that deal with similar topics are meeting jointly to save time and effort. Lobbyists are not permitted in the building and a skeleton press corps haunts the halls.

These strictures are expected to ease as the session progresses and vaccinations become more widespread, making public gatherings safer. For the first week of the session’s 17-weeks-plus-a-day gathering, however, they contributed to shortened and compressed schedules, in part as the complex behind-the-scenes apparatus that makes the session go comes up to speed in this new reality.

“I think we’re going to have to work through some glitches to make sure everything is working,” Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson, D-Las Vegas, said as the Assembly convened on Monday. “What we want to do is take it slow to start so that we work through those things.”

The first week

To be sure, it wasn’t all technical bugs slowing things down. There were the typical political skirmishes as well, along with a poignant reminder of the persistent COVID-19 risks.

The Legislature convened Monday for what is forecast to be a fairly modest session: There are few swing-for-the-fences policy initiatives expected as the state looks instead to shore up its finances and existing programs in the wake of economic damage wrought by the pandemic. Proposals on taxes, elections, and criminal justice reform are likely to dominate.

There’s hope – indeed, need – for bipartisanship on any talk of raising taxes or other revenues, given the two-thirds majority threshold for such efforts to pass. On that score, matters got off to a shaky start, at least in Senate, where proceedings were delayed by a partisan dispute over the rules and the laborious process of re-drafting them, which pushed adjournment until after 7 p.m.

For the rest of the week, houses skipped daily sessions, and neither met on Friday. The one substantial piece of legislation they passed was the bill to pay for the session — $15 million.

Committee meetings were similarly pared back, with hearings merged, shortened or canceled. At one on Tuesday, the Assembly Judiciary committee learned that about one-third of Nevada’s corrections staff have been vaccinated for COVID-19 but only one inmate has received the vaccine, the department said Tuesday.

That day began with news that the Assembly’s longtime Sergeant-at-Arms, Robin Bates, died Monday of COVID-19 – a sad and sobering reminder of the conditions under which the unique session has convened.

First eyebrow-raising bill

Through their last floor sessions Thursday, both houses had introduced roughly 100 bills each and referred them to committee. One piece of legislation, still in draft form, created the biggest stir: an economic incentive announced by Gov. Steve Sisolak that would allow certain businesses to effectively operate as their own governments. So-called Innovation Zones would permit companies such as Blockchains LLC, which currently operates out of a sprawling industrial park east of Reno, to form separate local governments to levy taxes, run schools and courts, and provide other government services.

The two houses also moved to install new lawmakers appointed to fill vacancies occurring since Election Day. Fabian Donate (pronounced Doh-NAH-tay), just 24 years old, took his seat in the Senate replacing Yvanna Cancela, who left to join the Biden administration. Tracy Marie Brown-May will be formally welcomed to the Assembly on Monday, replacing Alexander Assefa, who resigned.

Donate, by the way, was immediately installed as chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee.

Coming up

At 1 p.m. on Monday, the Senate Education Committee will hear a presentation on responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in schools, including remarks from Clark County School District Superintendent Jesus Jara and Washoe County School District Superintendent Kristen McNeill.

At 4 p.m. on Tuesday, the Senate and Assembly Committees on Legislative Operations and Elections will meet jointly to hear a presentation on how elections are overseen in Nevada, with remarks from experts including Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria and Washoe County Registrar of Voters Deanna Spikula.

And a 4 p.m. Wednesday, State Forester Kacey KC will give a presentation on wildfires in Nevada to the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

All legislative hearings can be viewed on the Legislature’s website.

Carson City Journal is a weekly feature that summarizes the major events happening in the capital during the 2021 legislative session and provides a look at what’s coming next.