Legislature

CARSON CITY – About 50 state employees gathered in front of the Legislative Building today to call on Gov. Brian Sandoval to participate in a discussion about potential tax increases to help fund the state budget.
With the wind blowing at a steady clip, Vishnu Subramaniam, AFSCME Local 4041, chief of staff, said: “This is a great analogy of what’s going on in the state. They’re trying to blow us away while we’re providing services.
“We need a broad-based corporate tax,” he said. “We need to be having a talk about revenues. The talk of cuts is a red herring.”

Thirteen applications for the position of Carson City Justice of the Peace were submitted to the city by the Feb. 11 deadline.

Applications for the position of Carson City Justice of the Peace / Municipal Court Judge were sought by the Board of Supervisors. The position is to fill the vacancy created by retiring judge Robey Willis whose last day is March 12.

The applicants and their current or last employer are:

A number of Silver City residents will go before lawmakers today to show their support of a proposed amendment to Nevada's eminent domain law that would remove the ability of a private person or business to exercise the law for the purposes of mining.

The current law on eminent domain (Chapter 37 of the Nevada Revised Statues) allows private individuals to take private land from property owners without their consent, for the purposes of mining. Testimony on this bill will be heard by the Judiciary Committee of the Nevada State Legislature today at 9 a.m. in room 2149.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOTDn2A7hcY

For more than a year, the lack of firm details about the Nugget Project has been a major source of frustration to those trying to get their heads around this undertaking.

Without real numbers or plans, those arguing for or against struggled with hitting the moving target that is this project.

But that target just got a whole lot more stationary, as Carson City Manager Larry Werner released a 100+ page feasibility report (attached below) for the Board of Supervisors to use this week when a decision is made on whether to move forward with the project.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Legislators have done this week what the cynical among us would never have expected: they got right to work.
The chatter in the hallways at 401 S Carson Street has revolved around the fast pace legislators seem to be setting during their first week in session. Legislators are already listening to testimony about bills. Legislative leaders are already rolling out big jobs bills.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Democratic legislative leaders today announced they will pursue legislation to ensure Nevadans are employed on state or local government public works projects.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Secretary of State Ross Miller says the time is ripe to get a substantial campaign finance reform package through the Legislature, and with Gov. Brian Sandoval and lawmakers of both parties in agreement on the need for change, he may be right.

The twisted and weathered woods of the Great Basin environment become imaginative and sometimes whimsical works of art in a new exhibit at the Western Nevada College Main Gallery.
Sculptor Larry Williamson exhibits his "Great Basin Work," Monday, Feb. 14-Friday, March 25, with a free, public reception on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 5-6:30 p.m.

Williamson's carved creations are fabrications of his mind and his materials - aged pieces of wood found on the floor of the Great Basin. What transpires is an imaginative recount of the landscape that has surrounded him most of his life.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Construction industry groups advocating for a tax increase to fund public works projects around the state to help put people back to work made their pitch to a legislative committee today, but the Building Jobs Coalition proposal faces opposition from Gov. Brian Sandoval.

CARSON CITY – For the past nearly two decades, the Nevada Legislature’s Senate Judiciary Committee has been run by a lawmaker who was also an attorney in private life.
The committee, which hears a variety of bills dealing with civil and criminal law, is seen by many as one of the more important legislative panels and one where some legal expertise is considered to have value.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – For Gov. Brian Sandoval, every penny counts as he tries to balance a two-year state budget with drastically reduced tax revenues.
At the Board of Examiners meeting today, Sandoval was able to eliminate a new vehicle purchase worth about $40,000 for the state dignitary protection program by finding a suitable vehicle in the state motor pool to fit the bill.

CARSON CITY – Nevadans could pay up to $625,684 to consultants who are helping the state implement the controversial federal health care reform law under a state contract.
The contract with Massachusetts-based Public Consulting Group allows up to that level of spending through June 30, 2012.

Treat your Valentine to an evening of sweet and hot big-band music 

tonight from 8 to 10 p.m. 
at Comma Coffee, 312 S. Carson St.
, across from the Legislature Building in Carson City.


Jazz Sampler for Sweethearts features the 19-member Mile High Jazz Band and vocalist Sheryl Adams, presenting jazzy versions of favorite love songs for Valentine's Day, and other swinging, big-band selections.

CARSON CITY —  The Nevada Legislature today voted unanimously to adopt a resolution that would cut their salaries by 4.6 percent.

CARSON CITY – Mention government transparency and “Twitter” probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.
A communication technology that gives users 140 characters to share where they just had lunch or “Tweet” trivia about the weather and celebrities doesn’t immediately scream “politics” either.
But Nevada state legislators, lobbyists and journalists are finding more and more use in Twitter because the platform allows information gathering and governing at high speed.

The 2011 Nevada Legislature got underway this morning, and here are some scenes from the opening ceremonies.

The Appeal is liveblogging the first day, and there is also coverage at SessionAccess.org.

CARSON CITY – They speak of limbs hacked off, death and guts.
In a war of words, critics of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s $5.8 billion budget have lambasted his proposed cuts to K-12, higher education and health and human services.

LAS VEGAS – The presidents of Nevada’s colleges and universities said the governor’s budget cuts would put their institutions on a starvation diet.
They argued that past budget cuts severely slimmed their institutions, meaning additional funding reductions would threaten their core academic mission.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – While there has been a lot of criticism directed at the details of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed spending plan, there is acclaim for his development of a new budgeting process designed to ensure state agencies get results with taxpayer dollars.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY — The director of Nevada’s Department of Motor Vehicles had a surprising announcement for Nevada’s motorists yesterday.
Bruce Breslow, the DMV’s new director, said that the department has had no effective way to tell who has insurance and who doesn’t.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Long lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles could be a thing of the past under a new proposal.
The new director of the state’s DMV plans to ask the Legislature to pass a bill that would allow 80 new, self-service kiosks in many Nevada neighborhoods.

CARSON CITY – The logic of Gov. Brian Sandoval goes something like this: If you’re going to make me do it, let me do it my way.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The state may save more money by spending rather than cutting.
Advocates for mental health funding advanced that seemingly nonsensical argument in a plea to save the state’s mental health courts, which are designed to rehabilitate mentally-ill criminal offenders.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
Until now, tenured faculty at Nevada’s universities have avoided the budget guillotine that has chopped away at the state budget.
They escaped salary cuts during the past session due to rules governing their pay.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – They have names like the Landscape Architecture Board, the Nevada Arts Council and the Commission on Mineral Resources, and there are more than 180 of them functioning within Nevada state government.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
RENO – When Gov. Brian Sandoval’s staff reduced funding for the Sierra Regional Center in the governor’s proposed budget, he may not have known what that would mean to the Stangelands.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
A prominent education official has called for tax increases to offset the proposed higher education budget cuts in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada fares well among the states in a new report that includes unfunded public pension liabilities as part of overall state debt.

Applications for the position of Carson City Justice of the Peace / Municipal Court Judge are being accepted through Feb. 11 by the Board of Supervisors. The position is to fill the vacancy created by retiring judge Robey Willis whose last day is March 12.

Applications will be available for downloading from the City’s website at www.carson.org or may be obtained in person from the City Manager’s Office, 201 N. Carson Street, Suite 2.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
RENO – He looked out into the audience at the University of Nevada, Reno and said: “if lawmakers want to invest in something, we want to make sure they invest in us.”
Behind him, a Powerpoint presentation displayed tactics for talking to lawmakers about higher education budget cuts.