By Jeri Davis and Bob Conrad
Echoing the desire for bipartisanship played up by his counterparts in Washington D.C., Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson (D-Clark County) today called on members of the Nevada Assembly to work together for the sake of the state and its residents during his opening remarks for the 81st Legislative Session.
“COVID-19 has exposed the deep cracks we have continued to put Band-Aids on, and we simply must do better,” Frierson said. “This session, I call on all of us to leave behind partisan rhetoric, to leave behind old playbooks, to leave behind business as usual.”
Frierson’s call for unity comes as his party holds a majority in the Assembly, with 25 Democratic seats versus just 16 Republican, and one vacant after the Jan. 11 resignation of Alexander Assefa, also a Democrat, who resigned last month after it was revealed he was being investigated by Las Vegas police for perjury, burglary, theft and unlawful residence for a political candidate.
It also followed his welcome of the Assembly’s new legislators: Natha Anderson (D), Annie Black (R), Venicia Considine (D), Cecelia Gonzalez (D), Heidi Kasama (R), Elaine Marzola (D), Andy Matthews (R), Cameron Miller (D), David Orentlicher (D), Shondra Summers-Armstrong (D) and Clara Thomas (D).
“You became a member of this body under some of the most unprecedented times, and Nevada needs us to step up in ways that are also unprecedented,” he said. “This will require sacrifice, hard work, setting aside differences and working together for the common good.”
He told the returning Assembly members that they were not being forgotten and that he recognized they ways in which they’d stepped up during the last year to make difficult decisions for the state and its constituents.
Among those difficult decisions were $1.2 billion in cuts from the state’s budget made during special sessions in July and August.
He also reiterated some of Nevada’s most devastating statistics from the last year, including a peak unemployment rate of 30% and job losses that nearly reached 97,000—saying it is the job of state legislators to get Nevadans back to work and make sure those who are unable to return receive the unemployment benefits to which they’re entitled.
“Just this past fall, 15% of Nevadans were facing housing insecurity … [and] 290,000 Nevadans facing food insecurity, forcing thousands to choose between the most basic necessities or go without,” Frierson said. “Local, state and federal leaders, including those in this body, took the charge to keep people in their homes—and businesses and our non-profit community helped families pay for utilities, food and internet access. We pulled together as Nevadans have always done in tough times.”
He added, however, that the pandemic has demonstrated a widening gap between “the haves and have-nots that cannot be ignored,” noting that many who were struggling before the onset of the pandemic are now in desperate circumstances.
Since last summer’s special legislative sessions, the outlook in Nevada has improved somewhat, a fact that Frierson acknowledged.
“While our budget this biennium is not as worrisome as we expected, we are still asking our state agencies and the Nevadans who work in those agencies, to do more with so much less,” he said. “We need bi-partisan solutions and a state government whose budget leaves no one behind. I have been a member of this body long enough to not have on rose-colored glasses—and I know there will be differences of opinion, ideology and policy, but as the saying goes, we can disagree without being disagreeable.”
Uncertainty is the name of the game
Republican Senator Ben Kieckhefer said the budget and unknowns are the theme of the 2021 session.
“I think uncertainty is the name of the game right now, especially when it comes to budgetary issues,” he said in an interview with This Is Reno. “The governor’s proposed a budget that is an actual cut biennium over biennium. There’s a sort of partial implementation of this new funding formula for K-12 education that we need to figure out and understand.”
Kieckhefer sounded cautiously optimistic about working across party lines, but he questioned some of the Democratic policy narratives by Governor Steve Sisolak.
“The big expectation that the federal government is going to come in with financial assistance for the states needs to be both seen, passed and then understood,” he said. “So there’s a lot of unknown at this time, and the legislature is going to have a lot to deal with in the closing weeks of the session.”
Frierson, on the other hand, stressed that he believes there will need to be debate and progress made toward expanding access to affordable health care, getting schools and kids back on track, getting Nevadans back to work, helping small businesses get back on their feet and closing corporate tax loopholes.
He said that many of these priorities, in addition to the development of new industries, were highlighted in Sisolak’s recent State of the State address.
Bill proposed to give non-partisans votes in primary elections
Kieckhefer said one of his initiatives is to advance a bill that will give registered non-partisan voters access to voting in primary elections.
“I think the evidence from voter registration is that people are choosing more and more not to align with political parties for a variety of reasons,” he said. “It’s time to give them an actual voice in their government, because right now, they don’t have much of one.”
Nevada is a “closed” primary state. The Washoe County Registrar of Voters explains: “If you are not registered as a Democratic or Republican, you may vote for only nonpartisan contests for your precinct. Minor party, other party and independent candidates (no party affiliation) only appear in the General Election, not the Primary Election.”
Kieckhefer said the bill could be a challenge.
“I think if we’re honest about it, we know it’s not good for voters, and we know it’s not good for the people of this state. So you know, finding a way to get more access to the ballot should be something we all support. It’s going to be a heavy lift, though,” he said.
Civil liberty groups demand police reform
Over the weekend, Nevada’s civil liberty and justice reform groups called upon Frierson and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro to commit to changing law enforcement practices, that, they said, are desperately needed.
“We write to remind Democratic leadership of promises made during the 32nd Special Session, and call on you to renew your commitment to address police and criminal justice reform and the white supremacy that plagues these systems,” wrote the groups, which include the Nevada ACLU, Mi Familia Vota Nevada and Nevada Attorneys for Criminal Justice.
They are calling for an end to qualified immunity for police, the establishment of a statewide use-of-force police and the collection and publication of officer misconduct complaints. But they don’t sound hopeful, despite national calls for similar changes to law enforcement practices when confidence in policing is at an all-time low.
“The public outcry for justice is more than a ‘fleeting and forgotten’ moment,” they added “Just this month we witnessed the stark contrast between law enforcement’s treatment of white supremacist insurrectionists attacking our nation’s capital compared to their brutal treatment of Black and brown protesters marching for racial justice this past summer. This moment demands meaningful and comprehensive police reform.”
Cannizzaro and Frierson did not respond to a request for comment about the letter. This story will be updated if a response is received.
Mining taxation
One issue that was a focus of both the 31st and 32nd Special Sessions in 2020 but both Frierson and Gov. Sisolak in his State of the State did not mention specifically, is increasing mining taxes. Proposals on the table go beyond pitting Republicans against Democrats–they reveal the rift between the rural lawmakers whose communities benefit from mining jobs and urban lawmakers who are working to avoid budget cuts.
Frierson closed out his remarks with one last call for unity, saying, “I am committed to fighting for our Nevadans, and as late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, ‘Fight for the things you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.’
“Join me. Let us bridge the divide that separates us and come together as one Nevada.”
Demonstrators protest election, coronavirus gathering restrictions
Protesters got in a fight during the first of the Legislature today. They gathered outside to protest COVID-19 restrictions, blaming Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak. It was unclear why the fight broke out.
There was also a dispute over a flag. The protesters, some armed, were angry about the Legislature’s flagpole not displaying the U.S. flag. Capitol Police, who had to calm down the crowd, later raised the Nevada Legislature flag. They said the pole is bare unless the legislature is in session.
One protester was there to say that public education’s common core curriculum is Marxism. Others were protesting a variety of grievances including COVID-19 vaccinations, the ban on the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 treatment and Nevada National Guard troops deployed in Washington D.C.
View this photos gallery by Ty O’Neil, who covered today’s events outside the Legislature.
