Recap: Nevada lawmakers join forces to advance police reforms, still split on mining taxes

Nevada lawmakers had to stay up late Saturday to advance a broad package of policing reforms after introducing yet another proposal to raise taxes on mining companies.

Assembly Joint Resolution 2 counts as the third mining tax-related measure introduced since the state’s 32nd special legislative session started on Friday. 

The proposed constitutional amendment would more than double the Silver State’s existing levy on the net proceeds of minerals, raising that tax rate to 12 percent from 5 percent.

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Two earlier introduced initiatives — Senate Joint Resolution 1 and Assembly Joint Resolution 1 — aim for a smaller bump in the industry’s constitutionally protected 5 percent tax cap. 

Both are expected to raise around $213 million annually via a new 7.75 percent tax on gross mining income. The only difference between the two is how they would split up revenue.

SJR 1, which has now cleared committee hurdles in both legislative chambers, would send half of the tax’s proceeds to Nevadans in the form of direct cash dividends. AJR 1 would divert 25 percent of that cash to education and health care.

Environmentalists and progressives, who have long decried mining protections embedded in the constitution, have lined up behind the latter measure, fearing that the Senate bill’s plan to send some of the tax’s proceeds straight to Nevada residents amounts to a voter "payoff" from the mining industry. 

AJR 2, the newest mining measure, would likely raise even more cash to fill out the state’s COVID-battered budget. It’s perhaps even more certain to raise hackles among Republicans, who banded together to unanimously oppose the bill’s Saturday debut in the Assembly. State senators had not scheduled a hearing on the proposal as of Sunday morning.

Here’s a look at what else you missed on a busy day in Carson City:

Assembly OK’s police reform package

Outnumbered Assembly Republicans offered a warmer reception to Assembly Bill 3, a sweeping package of policing reforms sought after George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died while in the custody of a white police officer in Minneapolis. 

The bill, first introduced in the Assembly on Friday morning, would allow drug and alcohol testing of police officers involved in shootings and require police to intervene when they see another officer misusing force on a suspect. 

It goes on to ban police choke holds and states that officers can only use “reasonable force,” as opposed to “all necessary means,” to carry out an arrest. The bill also explicitly permits the recording of law enforcement activity, bolsters state collection of traffic stop data and prohibits police from seizing recording instruments or destroying recorded images. 

AB 3 passed committee votes with substantial bipartisan support in both statehouse chambers, though failed to impress progressives and criminal justice reformers who said it achieved only “the bare minimum” level of change needed to prevent police misconduct. 

They would’ve preferred to see the full repeal of Senate Bill 242, a Democrat-backed 2019 law that expanded protections for police officers accused of misconduct. 

Hours later, SB 242 sponsor and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas, introduced a rewrite that advocates say fell well short of that goal.

Police protections law targeted

SB 242, Cannizzaro’s controversial 2019 bill, boosted the state’s existing “Peace Officers Bill of Rights” by halting most police misconduct investigations if complaints against the officer were more than a year old. The law went on to prohibit police departments from reopening investigations without “material new evidence.” It also required an officer’s permission before statements made during an internal probe could be made public in civil court proceedings.

Senate Bill 2, debuted on Saturday, all but abandons most of those provisions, though it still requires misconduct investigations to be opened in a “reasonable period of time” and not in cases that are more than five years old.

Cannizzaro, a criminal prosecutor by trade, in 2019 advertised the measure as a way to “set a level playing field” for cops under internal investigation. 

The Legislature’s top Democrat has since said she never intended to “create a situation where we cannot hold police officers accountable.”

SB 242 passed with broad bipartisan support just two years ago. But, as Cannizzaro acknowledged on Friday, that was two years ago.

“I would again note it was only really intended to get at labor disputes between officers and their management and was not intended to be some workaround of anything else,” she said. “Since the 2019 session, we have identified the need to revisit some of the provisions in SB 242 and to make timely and appropriate adjustments that reflect not only the needs of our peace officers, but the public they protect. … Senate Bill 2 is an example of just that.”

Progressives and civil rights advocates remained unimpressed — both with the bill’s hasty arrival and it’s failure to completely repeal SB 242. 

Laura Martin, executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, summed up many of those complaints.

“To be clear: PLAN opposes Senate Bill 2 because Senate Bill 242 needs to be fully repealed, not tweaked,” Martin said in a statement. “Period. SB242 and the Nevada Peace Officers Bill of Rights protects criminal cops.”

All eight Senate Republicans opposed the measure’s passage in a committee vote. It’s yet to be scheduled for a hearing in the Assembly.

State Senators started Sunday’s proceedings with another hearing on Senate Bill 1, which would give judges more ways to resolve eviction proceedings filed during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Assembly had not released its daily docket as of 10 a.m.

James DeHaven is the politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal. He covers campaigns, the Nevada Legislature and everything in between. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.