Political History of Nevada

Political History of Nevada Chapter 7 State Legislature 287 CHAPTER 7: STATE LEGISLATURE The Nevada Legislature: A Brief History Updated by VANCE A. HUGHEY Former Chief Principal Research Analyst, Legislative Counsel Bureau In 1861, James Nye was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as the governor of the Territory of Nevada. Exercising the executive authority granted to him under Section 12 of the Organic Act, which had been signed into law by President James Buchanan earlier that year, Governor Nye declared Carson City the site for the First Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Nevada. During that fi rst territorial legislative session, which convened on October 1, 1861, action was taken to designate a seat of government for the newly established territory. Th e legislators chose Carson City, which had been designated the new county seat for Carson County by the Utah Territorial Legislature earlier the same year. (Prior to the creation of the Nevada Territory, the area was part of western Utah Territory.) Th e Territory of Nevada was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until October 31, 1864, when Nevada was admitted to the Union. When the members of the Nevada State Constitutional Convention met in July 1864 and discussed, among other matters, the question of where the seat of government of the new State of Nevada was to be located, the delegates agreed to the placement of a provision in the Nevada Constitution designating Carson City as the seat of government. Th is action reaffi rmed the earlier decision by the Legislative Assembly. In spite of occasional suggestions made over the years to move the capital elsewhere, Carson City is the only city in Nevada to have the distinction of serving as the State’s capital. Consequently, the Nevada Legislature has always convened its regular and special sessions in Carson City. However, it has not always done so in the same building. Th e First Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly, as the territorial legislative body was called, was held at Abraham Curry’s Warm Springs Hotel, located east of Carson City where the Nevada State Prison now stands. For nearly two months, beginning in October 1861, Mr. Curry, one of Carson City’s principal founders, provided the territorial legislators a rent-free room, divided by a canvas partition separating the Council and House chambers. (It was not until Nevada became a state that these two houses were referred to as the Senate and the Assembly, respectively.) He also provided transportation to downtown Carson City, some 1.5 miles to the west, by a horse-drawn streetcar on wooden Legislature rails. As noted in Roughing It, a book of semi-autobiographical travel literature written by American humorist Mark Twain, no one in Carson City had off ered to assist the Legislative Assembly: 288 Political History of Nevada . Th ere is something solemnly funny about the struggles of a new-born Territorial government to get a start in this world. Ours had a trying time of it. Th e Organic Act and the “instructions” from the State Department commanded that a legislature should be elected at such-and-such a time, and its sittings inaugurated at such-and-such a date. It was easy to get legislators, even at three dollars a day, although board was four dollars and fi ft y cents, for distinction has its charm in Nevada as well as elsewhere, and there were plenty of patriotic souls out of employment; but to get a legislative hall for them to meet in was another matter altogether. Carson blandly declined to give a room rent-free, or let one to the government on credit. But when Curry heard of the diffi culty, he came forward, solitary and alone, and shouldered the Ship of State over the bar and got her afl oat again. I refer to “Curry—Old Curry—Old Abe Curry.” But for him the legislature would have been obliged to sit in the desert. He off ered his large stone building just outside the capital limits, rent-free, and it was gladly accepted. In 1862, when the Second Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly was to convene, Mr. Curry once again came forward to help, but this time he off ered to the Legislative Assembly upstairs rooms in the Great Basin Hotel. Located on the west side of Carson Street between King and Musser Streets, this building, like the Warm Springs Hotel, had been constructed by Mr. Curry. Th e Territory and then the State, beginning in 1864, leased the space and convened legislative sessions there until 1871 when construction of the Capitol, which had begun in 1869, was completed. Th e Nevada State Legislature fi rst convened in the still-incomplete Capitol for its fourth session from January 4, 1869, to March 4, 1869. For the next 100 years, from 1871 until 1969, the Legislature met in the State Capitol. By the early 20th Century, the Legislature had outgrown the Capitol, and the Legislature, in 1913, authorized the construction of two new wings, in part to create new chambers for the Senate and the Assembly at opposite ends of the second fl oor hallway. Th ese wings were completed in time for the 1915 Session, where the Assembly met in the north wing and the Senate met in the south wing. Th e tremendous increase in the population of Nevada over the next few decades, particularly during the 1960s, made it obvious that new legislative facilities were necessary, especially facilities for meeting rooms and offi ces for legislators and staff . In 1967, money was appropriated to construct a separate Legislative Building just south of, and across the mall from, the Capitol. Since 1971, legislative sessions have been held in the Legislative Building. In the mid-1990s, the Legislative Building was renovated and expanded to include State Legislature 289 a four-story connected addition east of the original building, adding more offi ce space and numerous committee meeting rooms. Th e building also has been enhanced to accommodate many modern technologies, including videoconferencing and wireless Internet access. Th e Nevada Constitution directed that the fi rst session of the Legislature would begin on the second Monday of December 1864, and the second regular session on the fi rst Monday of January 1866. Th e third regular session, which would be the fi rst of the biennial sessions, commenced on the fi rst Monday of January 1867. In a special election in 1889, the voters approved a constitutional amendment that changed the fi rst day of each session from the fi rst Monday to the third Monday in January. In 1998, Nevada’s voters approved a constitutional amendment limiting each regular legislative session to 120 calendar days and changing the fi rst day of session to the fi rst Monday in February. Regular sessions have been held every odd-numbered year since 1867, except for the regular session held in 1960. In 1958, the voters approved a constitutional amendment providing for annual sessions. Two years later, however, the voters approved an initiative returning to biennial sessions. Th erefore, 1960 was the only regular annual session of the Legislature. In addition to the regular sessions, 30 special sessions have been held. Th e fi rst special session was convened in 1867 roughly a week aft er the Th ird Session of the Legislature adjourned sine die; it lasted 20 days. Nine bills were passed covering a wide variety of topics including taxes, sale of State lands, and public offi cials. Seven resolutions were passed covering topics such as the Monroe Doctrine, reconstruction measures, Ireland, and claims against the United States government. Since 2005, the Governor has called the Legislature into special session nine times. Th e 22nd Special Session was convened at 3:00 a.m. on June 7, 2005, the same day that the 73rd Regular Session of the Nevada Legislature adjourned sine die, to address matters related to the Millennium Scholarship and full-day kindergarten that had not been addressed within the constitutionally mandated 120-day time frame of regular session. Th e 22nd Special Session adjourned sine die at 12:44 p.m. on June 7, 2005. Other special sessions since 2005 have addressed, among other things, issues such as education funding, revenue shortfalls in the State General Fund, taxation, economic development, and class-size reduction. Th e three most recent special sessions convened in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Legislature Th e 28th Special Session began on September 10, 2014, and ended on September 11, 2014. Governor Brian Sandoval called the special session to expand incentives for certain businesses to locate to Nevada in alignment 290 Political History of Nevada with Nevada’s economic development policy (Tesla Motors), revise provisions concerning the Economic Development Electric Rate Rider Program, limit the availability of certain insurance premium tax credits, and provide for the direct sale of electric vehicles by manufacturers in certain instances. Th e 29th Special Session began on December 16, 2015, and ended on December 19, 2015. Governor Sandoval called the special session to provide incentives for certain businesses to locate to Nevada in alignment with the State’s economic development plan (Faraday Future), revise provisions concerning workforce development programs, and address associated water rights applications and water service. Th e 30th Special Session began on October 10, 2016, and adjourned sine die on October 14, 2016. Governor Sandoval called the special session to consider imposing a lodging tax to fi nance the expansion and the renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center; provide a method to fi nance the construction and the operations of a National Football League stadium project or a college football stadium project in Clark County and create a Public Stadium Authority Board to manage the operations of such a facility; and authorize the Clark County Board of Commissioners to increase the sales and use tax in order to employ and equip additional law enforcement offi cers within Clark County.

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