Since The Nevada Independent’s inception in 2017, we’ve covered three legislatures and battles over key tax policies through to the end of 120 days.
A 10 percent excise tax on marijuana was rejected in 2017 after negotiations on a bill to fund education savings accounts failed, but was eventually revived in a compromise that funded another “school election program” in exchange for Republican votes.
In 2019, the Democrats pushed through a bill permanently setting an expiring state income tax rate, based in part on a legal view that the maneuver did not require a two-thirds majority (a move that was eventually rejected by the state’s Supreme Court).
Even in the 2020 special session, a bill to reduce mining tax deductions died, then appeared to receive a decisive Republican vote, and then died again within 48 hours.
But even with smaller democratic majorities, the mining tax law of the 2021 session (AB495) seemed to be passed – introduced on Saturday evening, heard on Sunday and then passed on Monday with the required two-thirds majority in both legislative chambers, four out of nine Republican senators were in favor.
But the quick passage and (relatively short) speeches are just the tip of the iceberg and don’t explain why a tax deal worked out in 2021 when many of the same actors and issues were involved in previous sessions.
The final deal was sealed in a Sunday morning session at the State Capitol – all four legislatures, chairs of the budget committee, and senior Republicans on those committees (Sen. Ben Kieckhefer and assembly woman Jill great) met with Gov. Steve Sisolak and his staff, who agree to the rough outline of the “deal” to pass the mining tax with enough Republican votes in tow.
The deal wasn’t fully finalized – negotiations and last minute inquiries continued until the last hours of the meeting, including delaying the vote on the draft budget for capital improvements until the last 15 minutes of the meeting just to make sure all the parts the bargains were met.
Participants say a tax compromise in 2021 (unlike any previous example) worked due to both political pressure – potential tax initiatives on sales and gaming revenue by the Clark County Education Association, and three legislative questions about mining tax. All three of these could have a major political impact, as well as a serious industrial impact – many feared that a mining tax, which would likely increase voter turnout in the country and hurt Democrats across the country, would likely still pass if it did considering how close a similar 2014 initiative was.
But beyond the voting questions, personalities and peculiarities of the term limit also played a role. Three of the six Republican votes for the deal are either canceled or plan to run for a non-partisan race.
The deal: Several parts of the “agreement” that concluded the meeting and received votes for the Mining Tax Act were immediately apparent.
The legislature has decided to Sen. Roberta LangeSB292 and other Republican inquiries were incorporated directly into the text of AB495. These include:
- $ 15 million in federal COVID aid to help with learning loss at charter schools
- $ 4.745 million in tax credits in the coming fiscal year for the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which grants private schooling to eligible low-income children. The bill also relaxes the rules and allows new students to apply for the program.
- $ 600,000 per year for the on-demand Silver State Opportunity Grant Program, which brings funding back to levels approved in the previous biennium.
- Approve Medicaid reimbursement for personal care services, legislation long sought by the Republican Senate leader James Settelmeyer (R-Gardnerville).
Other sweeteners were added in a last-minute amendment to SB461, the “waterfall” funding bill that regulates the allocation of the expected $ 2.7 billion of the state’s US rescue plan. The $ 15 million funding includes:
- $ 6 million to the Collaboration Center Foundation to expand services and programs to support people with disabilities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Senator Scott Hammond (R-Las Vegas), a yes-vote to the mining tax bill, is on the foundation’s advisory board.
- $ 5 million to the Nevada ABLE Savings Program, which will be given as a grant to people with disabilities negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- US $ 4 million to the UNR to establish a nationwide Dean’s Future Scholars Program aimed at supporting prospective first-generation college students in sixth grade or above. Sen. Heidi Seevers Gansert (R-Reno) previously served as an executive at UNR and at that session sponsored a bill (SB118) that introduced a similar nationwide program for first generation college students.
Apparently the Republicans asked for more during the negotiations, but any concessions had to be weighed whether their inclusion would replace the votes of the progressive Democrats and satisfy the Clark County Education Association (see the latest recording of a study on the composition of the school board). and possible appointment of trustees).
One of the bigger sticking points has been a permanent source of funding for Opportunity Scholarships. One of the biggest concerns is that families receiving the scholarships will encounter the same problem in the 2023 legislature and will have to stand up for funding again as advocates of public education are severely marginalized.
A Republican governor in 2023 would likely push for the program to be expanded, but Sisolak was reluctant when asked during a post-meeting press conference Tuesday whether he would include funding for the program in his recommended budget for the next biennium.
“That was an agreement that was made. I will keep my side of the agreement, all agreements made, ”he said.
The Republicans also pushed for further election changes (removal of the ballot collection or “voting” from the expanded postal voting law) and a partisan equilibrium in a provisional redistribution commission – both of which the Democratic leadership rejected.
Other requests that were less partisan and more educational were easier to swallow, including money to keep charter schools harmless against financial losses in moving to a new funding formula (SB463) and including the $ 15 million in learning loss Programs at charter schools. Other Republican motions were considered non-controversial – including measures related to prescription drugs to treat HIV and the inclusion of recently released inmates in Medicaid (a Settelmeyer bill on both issues didn’t make it out of the congregation, but the concepts were incorporated into other statutes adopted).
The politicians: The six Republicans who voted for the mining tax deal had different reasons for voting for the compromise.
Kieckhefer will be excluded after this session and Hammond after the 2023 session. Rep. Tom Roberts (R-Las Vegas) plans to run for the Clark County Sheriff in 2022, a non-partisan race.
Senator Keith Pickard (R-Henderson), who in a speech complained about special interests driving the decision, almost pledged in an interview with the Associated Press in April that he would support a mining tax proposal if he was at the meeting Language would come. The Henderson Republican said he was undecided about his vote when he entered the plenary session.
Tolles and Gansert – who represent Northern Nevada – both have a reputation for being more moderate and ready to discuss improved funding for education in the right circumstances.
In interviews with The Nevada Independent, Tolles and Roberts said that mining industry support for the measure was a necessary factor and that the money was specifically earmarked for education.
“I won’t be in politics forever, but I’ll always be a person and a wife and a mother and a professional and a member of my community,” said Tolles. “And so every decision I have to make cannot be about what’s going to happen in the future, but about whether I feel good about what’s in front of me and how I feel about it when I look back on my life. “