57 bills die as third Nevada legislative deadline hits

Friday was the deadline for passage of non-exempt bills from the second house.

Among the newly deceased are measures that would have expanded the rights of tenants, the plan to convert traffic citations to civil rather than criminal infractions and tightening up requirements for immunizing children in order to attend public schools.

Of those, 21 were Senate bills that died in Assembly Committees and 36 Assembly bills that died in the Senate.

SB256 not only would have expanded tenant rights to get back any security deposit but rights to access his or her dwelling unit and to fight eviction and demand repairs to the unit as well as reclaim any personal property in the living unit.

AB123 was designed to tighten rules that permit parents to get an exemption from immunizing their child including for religious reasons.

AB411 would have converted criminal citations for traffic violations to civil infractions including ending the practice of issuing arrest warrants for minor misdemeanor in fractions.

Also dead is AB153, a bill that would have made it a crime to leave a firearm where a child could get it.

The fourth and final deadline is the May 24 deadline for passage of non-exempt bills from the second house.

But well over 200 bills are exempt from these deadlines, primarily because they require funding. Those measures have all been referred to the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees.

A short list of about 30 of those bills are supplemental appropriations or measures already included and funded in the governor’s recommended budget. The fate of the rest of them, more than 235 bills, depends on whether or not there is funding available and the Economic Forum provided scant new funding for legislators to spend. That leaves only a few options for those backing exempt measures — new taxes or tapping other existing sources such as the Rainy Day Fund.