Nevada Assembly

The Advocacy Beat Goes On

/ Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada / Leave a comment

 

The 2019 Nevada Legislature is slated to adjourn on Monday, June 3, barring a last-minute extension.

When it ends, the presiding officer in each chamber adjourns the meeting “sine die.”  This is a Latin phrase, universally mispronounced, that translates literally as “without a day.”  It makes it sound terribly final, as if no one is ever coming back again.  We all know that two years from now many of the same people will be back, often confronting the same issues. 

The work of government goes on, even when the Legislature is not in session.

LEAN’s work continues as well.  Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada exists for two related reasons:  To speak out on behalf of the least among us to elected officials, and to Lutherans and others across the state.  Both groups have power to change things.

LEAN has a paid Advocate at the Legislature during the Session. Bill Ledford has done well in his first session, testifying about proposals that the LEAN Board has chosen to take a position on. Some of these bills have passed, some have not. Next month we will sort some of this out.  Right now, a lot isn’t known, because so much legislation is decided in the last few days of a session. “Backroom Deals” are unfortunately common.

A previous post here was about several reforms that had been postponed because they carry spending requirements. Such postponements help set up conditions ripe for backroom deals, because pressure to “just get finished” is huge.

The deadline also enhances the power of lobbyists.  In the final days, there isn’t time for careful analysis of bills, and there is a tendency for legislators to rely on lobbyists for information, biased as it might be.

This is why it is so important for LEAN to have an Advocate at the Legislature.  Bill Ledford has been working all session to establish personal relationships with Senators and Assembly Members.  He has worked to explain why particular measures are good or bad policy in a just society.  He has worked to articulate our Lutheran Christian values as outlined in the ELCA Social Statements.

Bill’s advocacy and that of LEAN generally does not end at “sine die” any more than legislators become just private citizens when they go back home.  Bill will continue to connect with them, sometimes to discuss plans to try again in the next session to pass measures that failed, sometimes to discuss interim studies that take place between sessions.

The “interim,” or time between sessions, also is a time for LEAN to focus more on parishioners, helping them to understand the issues and the various ways those issues might be addressed. 

Financial support is needed to keep all this work going.  LEAN receives funds from ELCA Churchwide, and from the Sierra Pacific and Grand Canyon Synods.  We also receive support from congregations throughout the two synods.  LEAN is grateful for all support, and we operate frugally.

We hope to emphasize the “engagement” part of our name more in the next eighteen months.  Many know about the Legislative website, and about the resources it offers for keeping informed and for expressing views on legislation.  This does not disappear when the session ends.  We hope to do some training so more people can learn the tools at their disposal.  We are blessed to live in a state where direct access to elected officials is easy.  Martin Luther viewed committed, informed citizenship part of our Christian calling, and this is echoed in the first ELCA Social Statement, “The Church in Society.”  A lot has been written lately about how individuals need to work to reclaim democracy from special interests.  LEAN hopes to work with Lutherans and legislators across the state toward that goal.

LEANING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK

/ Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada / Leave a comment

LUTHERAN ENGAGEMENT and ADVOCACY in NEVADA is the new LEAN, and we now have a Policy Council in place.  The Policy Council has set out for our Advocate, Allan Smith, LEAN’s advocacy agenda for the remainder of the legislative session.

Two priorities carry over from the 2015 session, and both have to do with economic justice.  They are “payday lending” and minimum wage.  LEAN continues to be interested in these, based on the ELCA Social Statement, “Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All.”  (The new LEAN, like its predecessors, takes its policy positions from the Social Statements.)

Assembly Bill 163 provides significant new protection for people who use so-called payday lenders.  These short-term, high interest loans often start a downward spiral of endless debt, because when the borrower can’t pay, lenders simply give them another loan.  AB 163 requires lenders to evaluate the borrower’s ability to pay before making a loan.  AB 163 also restricts a lender’s ability to “cure” a defaulted loan with a payment plan.

There are three measures dealing with minimum wage.  Senate Bill 106 calls for a gradual increase of seventy-five cents per hour every year until the minimum wage reaches $12.00 per hour.  Senate Joint Resolution 6 also gets to $12.00 per hour, but on a different timetable.  Assembly Bill 175 began as a straightforward increase of the minimum wage, raising it one dollar per hour every year to reach $15.00.  Recently AB 175 has morphed into something quite different.  As amended, the bill refers to the Nevada Constitution, which allows a minimum wage of one dollar per hour less if health insurance is provided by an employer.  The amendment defines the kind of health plan required to qualify as “health insurance.”  The amendment significantly raises the standard, and by doing so, gets at employers who offer a “bare bones” plan and pay wages at the lower rate.  This may be a legislative maneuver to make employers, who argue that a higher minimum wage kills jobs, to either pay more on the health care side or agree to the proposed wage increase.

Increasing the minimum wage has been proposed in the past, and like this session, it has encountered resistance.  Rev. Mike Patterson was the LEAN Advocate in the 2015 legislative session.  He spent time with Assemblyman Ira Hansen, one of the most conservative people in the Assembly.  Mike was able to convince Mr. Hansen that apart from the moral considerations, an increase in the minimum wage makes economic sense.  Mr. Hansen concluded that many low wage workers qualify for public assistance in the form of subsidized food, housing, medical care, and other.  In true conservative fashion, he questions the role of government in such programs, and calculated a “breakeven” point of $15 to $17 per hour to shift these costs to employers.  Assemblyman Hansen actually made a chart showing his figures and submitted it to his committee colleagues in support of the original 2017 bill.  Advocacy works!

Advocate Allan Smith is in Carson City, speaking on behalf of the poor as well as others who suffer injustice.  To express your opinions on AB 163, AB 175, or any other bill, go here.   Or start with the Legislature home page, then click on “Share Your Opinion on Bills” in the upper right corner.