LEGISLATURE

2019

expedited action in committee late Thursday, along with another measure that anchors Democrat-backed efforts to raise the state’s minimum wage.

The legislative committee actions moved Assembly Bill 538, the funding bill, and Assembly Joint Resolution 10, the minimum wage measure, to the full Assembly for action.

The first item would delay a scheduled reduction in the payroll tax paid by businesses, keeping it at its current level to generate roughly $100 million over the coming two years.

Legislative lawyers have issued an opinion saying lawmakers can extend the tax without the two-thirds majority typically required for tax measures, a position Republicans and other opponents of the extension have disputed. The measure cleared the Assembly Taxation Committee with the panel’s three Republicans voting no.

AJR10 would set up a process for voters potentially to amend the state constitution to raise the minimum wage. It would set the state’s minimum wage at $12 starting in mid-2024, tie future increases to the federal minimum wage and allow the Legislature to raise it. It would go to voters if approved by lawmakers this year and in the 2021 legislative session.

The measure dovetails with Assembly Bill 456, a pending bill that would raise the hourly minimum wage to $12 in stages by 2024. The Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee passed that bill with Republicans voting no.

As with the funding bill, chambers of commerce and retailers testified in opposition, citing its potential economic impacts, especially on small businesses.

Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, D-las Vegas, downplayed those concerns, saying the “doom and gloom scenarios that we have heard don’t necessarily hold true.” She added that the resolution was “not a vote for us to actually raise the minimum wage. This is a vote to ask our constituents what they think.”

NV Energy bill hearing

A bill aimed at curbing the number of large companies leaving NV