Growth legislation dies in committee

by Geoff Dornan

R-C Capitol Bureau

A bill that would require Douglas County to take additional measures to institute a growth ordinance died Friday after it failed to get a hearing before the Government Affairs Committee.

Senate Bill 510 was introduced and referred to the committee on March 28. An April 4 hearing on the bill before the committee was cancelled.

The bill was one of 263 bills that died.

Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, said that is about the same number that died at this point in the 2005 Legislature.

And under the rules adopted by both houses, any measure without a specific exemption not processed out of committee in the house of origin died on April 13.

"There were a lot of duplicates," he said. "I mean, how many bills on a subject do we need? On some issues we had four or five bills."

Altogether, Senate committees declined to process a total of 104 bills. Assembly committees left a total of 159 pieces of legislation behind.

Judiciary Chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, said there were a number of duplicates on the list as well as bills that, for a variety of reasons, the sponsor asked to withdraw. And he said there were a few, such as one dealing with illegal immigration, that raised constitutional issues. That issue, he said, "really has to be solved at the national level."

Assembly Commerce and Labor Chairman John Oceguera, D-Henderson, said his panel left 24 of 100 bills behind. In addition to the same duplications experienced by other committees, he candidly admitted some were simply "bad bills."

Sen. Randolph Townsend said his panel had the same problem with some of the measures referred there.

"It's very simple: A good piece of legislation is going to survive."

In contrast to those committees, some panels approved a large percentage of the measures referred to them for review. Senate Judiciary and the Senate Human Resources and Education committees each left just eight bills behind by the close of business Friday. Judiciary Chairman Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, said 67 measures passed out because "there were four votes for them."