"In the Year of Our Lord"

April 15, 2005 was the deadline for all bills to be passed out of their original committee. That means some of the 1,143 bills will be dead. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions including resolutions, funding bills, and leadership bills. The bills that passed out of committee will now go to the full House (Assembly or Senate) and then on to a committee in the other House.

Enclosed is an alert on SJR5 to reduce taxes and limit government. This Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) is the answer to the government spendaholics who will forever raise your taxes on property and everything else. I hope you will take the time to contact the Legislature. Your call or e-mail will make a big difference. This Taxpayers Bill of Rights was successfully implemented in Colorado in 1992 through the initiative petition process. Between 1997 and 2002 Colorado has reduced taxes more than any other state, issuing annual tax rebates to the people totaling more than $3.2 billion.

In addition to providing tax relief, Colorado’s TABOR has fostered economic growth. Since TABOR Colorado has experienced remarkable job growth. TABOR has forced Colorado residents to see the cost inherent in government programs.

Because of this long–term success, Colorado’s, TABOR may well surpass California’s Proposition 13 in terms of effectiveness.

Please call the Legislature and ask them to vote for SJR5: Nevada’s TABOR (see enclosed alert for details).

Much of our time has been spent on election bills, trying to protect the right to petition. There have been at least 50 election bills many of them trying to make it harder for the people to succeed on initiative petitions. The onslaught against the people has been incredible. Many other election bills, good and bad, have been heard. Several bills would change the date of the primary election to May or June extending political campaigning by 4 months.

We have worked tirelessly to protect families, protect our Constitutionally guaranteed rights, and oppose tax eating government programs. Your financial support and prayers are needed.

Our Nevada Eagle Forum Legislative Report is enclosed.

AB43: Rights for Foster Children –This bill establishes a dangerous precedent of rights for children undermining rights and authority of parents. Unfortunately it was amended and passed out of committee.

AB132 & AB202 have to do with creating a safe and respectful learning environment in school. AB132 has died, but we hope the language to "ensure that a person is entitled to maintain his own beliefs and to respectfully disagree without resorting to violence, harassment, or intimidation, " was amended into AB202. If not, AB202 prescribes a certain set of "government school" mandated beliefs. We worry that it could, as in the past, include forcing acceptance of sexual diversity, including homosexuality.

AB 134: Prohibits schools from requiring students to take Ritalin or other psychotropic drugs. Died.

AB143/SB326 give needed protection to citizens whose private property is being taken by eminent domain by government. Both bills passed out of committee.

AB198 All Day Kindergarten. This expensive boondoggle would cost over $72 million for two years. This bill passed out of Assembly Education Committee and is now waiting action in Assembly Ways and Means.

AB224 which would have prohibited the administering of immunizations, which contain more than a specified amount of mercury unfortunately died in committee. This bill was important, because the number of immunizations children are forced to take (64+) can result in mercury poisoning.

AB344 Required protection by the state and local government, and businesses for your social security number. We supported this legislation. It has been amended and passed out of committee.

AB362 Allowed for reciprocity with other states for a permit to carry a concealed firearm. It never even got a hearing.

AB399 Required instruction in flag etiquette in public schools. The Standards Committee, full of educrats, now controls the entire curriculum. Nothing worthwhile can get passed this monolith.

AB397 would require homeschool children to be tested by the government schools. Because of the outpouring of opposition from the homeschoolers, the homeschool portions of this bill were amended out.

AB455 moving the primary to June passed. It also contains dangerous language about prohibiting people from running for office if they did not fill out financial disclosure and campaign finance reports, which we consider to be in violation of free speech.

AB518 Stealth mandatory kindergarten. This bill allows local school districts to implement mandatory kindergarten through minimum attendance policies for First Grade and Kindergarten.

AB530 a very bad bill, changes the definition of "willful" making public officials subject to punitive measures for mistakes or small infractions by the so-called Ethics Commission. They would be guilty until proven innocent, have no right to face their accuser and have no right of trial by jury. Passed committee.

AB546 repeals the unconstitutional "speech police" portions of the Ethics Commission. This was overturned in court. This is good. We worked for the repeal of this free speech violation for several sessions. However the bill also increases fines from $5,000 to $10,000 for campaign reporting which is a violation of free speech as well.

AB555 would interfere with "medical free choice" with negative regulations on homeopathy. All portions of the regarding homeopathy were amended out of the bill. The bill passed committee.

AJR4 Urges Federal Government to recognize unsuitability of Yucca Mountain. Passed Committee. This issue could be resolved if the State of Nevada asserted State sovereignty over its own land like the Eastern States.

AJR5 replaces the Nevada Constitutional provision requiring signatures to be gathered in 13 of Nevada’s 17 counties. This provision was struck down by the courts. AJR5 provides that signatures be gathered in each of our 3 Congressional districts, a provision which we supported. However, it also increase the number of signatures required form 10% to 15% for statute changes and to 20% for Constitutional Amendments which makes it practically impossible to succeed with an initiative petition if you aren’t a millionaire. Amend and do pass from committee.

AJR11 from last session, proposes to amend the Constitution to provide that most of the members of the Board of Regents will be appointed by the Governor instead of elected by the people. Unfortunately it passed the Assembly and is now in Senate Government Affairs Committee.

AJR13 which also passed last session, is a Constitutional Amendment providing that in addition to the Governor that the Legislature can call for a special session under very strict conditions. We favor this bill as helping to restore the balance of power between the Governor and the Legislature. It passed the Assembly and is now in the Senate.

SB2 requires that Nevada expenditures on schools meet or exceed the national average. What a joke this bill is. The states that spend the most, often have the worst education like Washington DC and California. Utah spends the least and leads the nation in education excellent. Try teaching phonics! It’s cheap and it works!!! This bill is exempt from the deadline. No action yet.

SB125 increases the residency requirements for candidates to at least 6 months before they file for office. Passed Senate committee.

SB129 requires Legislator who is a government employee to take an unpaid leave of absence during the Legislature. This bill partially resolves the inherent conflict of interest when government employees are elected to the Legislature and then vote on bills and budgets, which directly affect them. It does not go far enough, but is a step in the right direction. It has passed the Senate.

SB206 Would have revised the law concerning withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. This bill, thankfully was withdrawn by the sponsor.

SB221 extends the current provision so that homeschool students can participate in interscholastic sports in high school and middle school. It passed.

SB222 allows a potential ballot question to be challenged in advance allowing everyone who opposes it to take you to court and challenge the petition. Unfortunately, it passed committee.

SB224 Another bad election bill creating more requirements for organizations who participate. It passed committee.

SB228 would have taken away the opportunity for proponents and opponents of ballot questions to write the explanations and gave the job to the political parties. Thankfully, it died in committee.

SB223 and SB241 provides for School Choice and Vouchers. The Teachers Union and Educrats opposed these measures. However, SB223 has passed committee and has been referred to Senate Finance.

SB240 "Health Savings Accounts" passed the Senate Committee. Health Savings Accounts will help to reform the entire health care system. HSAs will bring freedom: tax-free accounts, rollover year-to-year, empowering individuals (instead of HMOs) to make health choices, and allowing contributions by employers and employees. Through HSAs individuals will make their basic health care decisions and have catastrophic insurance for major health problems, which means lower premiums.

SB248 Creates a statutory right to trial by jury for people charged with misdemeanors for domestic violence. This is important because with this misdemeanor thy can lose their right to keep and bear arms. It died in Committee.

SB296 is a bill on child abuse and neglect, which contains some overstepping by government. It was amended and passed out of committee.

SB329 changes voting for "none of the above" to "no preference" to help with electronic voting. Passed Committee.

SB347 Protects people against identity theft. This is a good bill, but it required people to put their fingerprint on their driver licenses. We spoke for the bill and against the provision for fingerprints. The requirement for fingerprints has been removed. This bill passed Senate Committee as amended.

SB350 Prohibits government agencies from outsourcing government work to foreigners. Outsourcing takes American jobs and sends them overseas. Our tax dollars should not be spent to hire non-Americans in foreign countries to steal our jobs. Unfortunately, this bill died in committee.

SB385 was a bill sponsored by Secretary of State Dean Heller. It would have imposed more restrictions and greater penalties on candidates including an almost impossible requirement that they must report a $1000 donation within 24 hours while giving government 10 days to report the info from candidates to the SOS. Died in Committee.

SB386 another election bill required petitioners to secure permission at least 24 hours in advance of petitioning on public property. It also made it an E-felony if someone did not turn in a voter registration form within 7 days. It also limited a person’s opportunity to register to vote and then sign a petition. Unreal! This bill did pass, but was amended. The amended version is not available at this writing.

SB402 Insured that parents who are subject to abuse and neglect charges are told what their Constitutional rights are. With more and more abuses by government this is a necessary protection. It was amended & passed by committee.

SB461 Omnibus education bill provides for the teaching of phonics Think of that!!! No wonder kids can’t read. It also provided for merit pay for teachers (maybe they would get paid what their worth), and prohibited school from requiring children to take Ritalin and other psychotropic drugs, and provided school choice. This bill was amended and passed by the committee.

SB478 changes the date of the primary election to May and filing for office to February significantly extending the campaign period. Other objectionable portions were amended out. It passed committee.

SCR8 Provides for the deconsolidation of the Clark County School District. It is the largest school district in the nation. Parents have no voice in such a large district. Studies show small districts (under 5,000 students) and small schools have more impact on student achievement than any other variable, including money spent, class size, etc. It died in committee.

SJR3 was the worst of the anti-petition bills creating a new requirement that signatures be gathered in all 42 Assembly Districts statewide. It died in committee.

SJR5, SJR6, and SJR9 all provide for limits on taxes and government spending. See enclosed alert.