Thread by @SteveYeagerNV

With the more recent interest in the #NVLeg, particularly when it comes to #SB1 relating to the #Athletics, please allow me to provide some context related to the 35th Special Session and the #NVLeg generally. A 🧵:

Per the Nevada Constitution, the #NVLeg meets every other year for 120 days. We are a citizen legislature, meaning that nearly every legislator has another job. About 75% of Nevada legislators live in Las Vegas, 430 miles from the capitol in Carson City.

The drive from Las Vegas to Carson City is 7 hours. The flight from Las Vegas to Reno is about an hour and then you have to drive about 30 minutes down to Carson City. Air service between Las Vegas and Reno has been atrocious this session, with constant delays/cancellations.

It is typical for Las Vegas legislators to travel back and forth for most of the session, but the end of the session always means long nights/weekends, so most folks can't go back the last few weeks. Being away from family and loved ones is difficult, but we serve despite it.

It is hard to describe what the end of a legislative session is like. They are always busy because certain budget bills have to be passed before others can be considered. But suffice it to say that many of us, including staff, were working 18-20 hours days for the last few weeks.

So the certainty of a 120 session is important because it allows legislators to let their employers know when they will be back at work and also to schedule important things like doctor and dentist appointments, as well as family vacations and the like.

The Governor does not usually call a special session right as a regular session ends unless something critical doesn't pass in the regular session. This year, that happened, when Senate Republicans all voted no on a critical bill that had been agreed upon: thenevadaindependent.com/article/senate…

I had a chance to speak with the Governor a couple of hours after the end of the 120 day session. He indicated he was going to call a special session. I asked twice what the special session would entail and he did not mention the A's: thenevadaindependent.com/article/lombar…

The next day, the Governor called a special session to make good on the agreement that had been struck relating to the the last remaining budget bill: thenevadaindependent.com/article/legisl…

The 34th Special Session ended up being the quickest in state history because everything had been agreed upon beforehand. We took care of our business in just 1 hour and 54 minutes: thenevadaindependent.com/fact-briefs

The day after the regular (82nd) session adjourned, the Senate Majority Leader and I met with the Governor. Contrary to what he had told me the night before, he indicated that he was going to call a second special session related to the A's: thenevadaindependent.com/article/lombar…

We advised him that it would be better to have a special session on the A's later in the summer, which would give legislators and staff time to recover from the end of session and get back to their jobs/families and allow the A's bill to be further refined.

The sudden sense of urgency was surprising because there seemed to be no sense of urgency about this during the regular session. Indeed, the original A's legislation, #AB509, wasn't introduced until May 26th, with just 10 days left in the 120 day session.

We made clear all along that we would need sufficient time to vet any proposal relating to the A's: thenevadaindependent.com/article/assemb…

Although we heard #SB509 in a joint session a few days after it was introduced, the end of session sprint did not allow for a thorough vetting. In addition, we made clear that we could not seriously consider it until we had the budget locked in: thenevadaindependent.com/article/democr…

The Governor vetoed a critical budget bill on June 1, just 4 days before the end of the regular session, effectively killing further discussion on #SB509 because our number one duty as legislators is to pass a balanced budget for the state: thenevadaindependent.com/article/lombar…

The redo of that budget bill ultimately didn't get signed until the very last night of the regular session, a few hours before midnight, which obviously left no time for consideration of #SB509, which we said time and time again would not be a "ram and jam."

So let's be clear why we are now in yet another special session to consider #SB1. The original legislation was introduced very late in the regular session and the Governor chose to veto a critical budget bill in the waning days of the regular session.

Disregarding our advice to wait on calling a special session, the Governor called it anyway. Normally special sessions for policy issues are coordinated in terms of scheduling & there is a general consensus that folks are likely to be supportive of the contemplated legislation.

Neither happened here. But, because we are legislators committed to serve, we will and are vetting #SB1 to decide whether it makes sense for Nevada. Despite what some (surprisingly) thought, this was never going to be a quick "ram and jam" session, nor is this "juiced in."

And rather than continue to burn legislators and staff out, we decided to give everybody the weekend to rest and reset. That doesn't mean conversations have ceased happening. It just means we aren't requiring everyone to be in the legislative building in Carson City.

We will be back on Monday to continue this process and thoughtfully consider whether #SB1 is in the best interest of Nevada. We realize there are strong opinions on this topic but we, as legislators, are just trying to do the right thing here, despite all the noise.

One last thing. If you are going to come at me with the "we will vote you out if you pass this" - please save yourself the time if you don't live in Nevada. Or if you don't live in my district. Fewer than a dozen of my 75,000 actual constituents have weighed in on this issue.