Contractors would have to hire more Nevada workers to receive a bidding preference on public works projects under a bill debated Tuesday in a Nevada Assembly committee.AB172 also would streamline the Nevada Jobs First Initiative adopted in 2011, though Democratic Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick and Assemblyman William Horne told the Government Affairs Committee amendments are pending.“This bill is a work in progress,” said Horne, D-Las Vegas.In an effort to ease the pain of the Great Recession in Nevada, lawmakers approved Assembly Bill 144 in 2011. It gave contractors who bid on public works jobs a 5 percent preference over other …