Sandoval vetoes two more

Gov. Brian Sandoval has vetoed two more pieces of legislation send to his desk by the Nevada Legislature.

Senate Bill 207, he said, provides the Labor Commissioner with duplicative and unnecessary authority to punish businesses that misclassify employees - with fines of up to $25,000 for each misclassified person and, after a third offense, the power to take an employer's business license away for up to three years.

In his veto message, Sandoval described the penalties in the bill as "extreme."

"They threaten to deter employers from efficiently managing their labor force by encouraging them to over-classify personas employees in order to avoid the potentially devastating imposition of excessive financial penalties," he said.

Sandoval also vetoed Assembly Bill 152, which sought to create an advisory committee to make recommendation on the construction and maintenance of Nevada's highways.

The bill would have given that committee, consisting of eight legislative appointees, the power to put advisory questions on the ballot.

"This bill unnecessarily expands government and circumvents the legislative process," he said in his veto message.

He said highway funding is the responsibility of the Nevada Department of Transportation, which is overseen by the Board of Transportation.

"There is no indication that the department is performing its planning function insufficiently," he said adding that makes the advisory committee unnecessary and redundant.

In addition, with only legislative appointees on that panel, the bill hands too much power to a small group of unelected officials "to make recommendations that have major implications on taxpayers and to then present those recommendations to the voters."