April 2, 2021
We made it to the end of the 9th week of the Legislative Session! We are now halfway through with only 60 days left to go. There is one week left until the committee passage deadline on April 9th. The bills introduced this week that we are focused on are AB321, SB254, and AB395.
AB321 from Speaker Frierson looks to expand voting options in Nevada. It builds on bill AB4, which allowed for everyone to get an absentee ballot due to COVID-19. This bill proposes to permanently have mail-in ballots for all eligible voters. It still keeps in-person voting as an option. Having permanent mail-in ballots makes our democracy more accessible and removes barriers for people who cannot make it to the polls for many reasons including disabilities, lack of child care, being unable to take time off of work, and other reasons.
SB254 from Senator Neil is the Fair Chance Housing Bill. It removes barriers to housing for people with a criminal record applying to attain affordable housing. Everyone deserves safe and affordable housing no matter what their record is. It includes portions from another bill, AB317, which prevents landlords from discriminating against applicants with multiple sources of income like alimony, governmental assistance, disability, or other forms or income.
AB395 from Senator Yeager is a bill to abolish the death penalty. Nevada would be joining 23 other states that have already done this, Virginia being the most recent one. The death penalty is cruel and overdue for abolishment.
The bills head this week were AB332 and SB346. AB332 by Assemblywoman Peters creates a landlord registry. It would have all landlords register with the Housing Division of Nevada. This would make it so we have data to use for future bills to help protect tenants. This bill is very important to get rid of the power imbalance between tenants and landlords.
SB346 from Senator Neil looks to update outdated tax codes to capture lost revenue from digital products. Currently, Nevada does not receive any revenue from ebooks, mp3 downloads, streaming, etc. This update is important because these things didn’t even exist when the code was written. We need to make sure we have a consistent revenue source for our state so we are not constantly making cuts to education, healthcare, and mental health services. This will help to balance our revenue.
Remember to help us support these bills mentioned by going to this website. You can also join our Digital Activation Team or Rapid Response Team to help us out even more. All the information is on our website along with all our Legislative priorities which are now available for you to look over here.