Sandoval OKs 79 laws, vetoes 9 on deadline day

Nevadans will be barred from texting while driving, allowed to order food in smoking bars, and spared from a hike in their utility bills after Gov. Brian Sandoval finished processing bills from the 2011 legislative session.

The Republican governor on Friday signed 79 new laws, vetoed nine and is allowing one to become law without his signature as he wrapped up his work by the constitutional deadline of 10 days after the session adjourns.

A new ban on cellphone use and texting while driving brings Nevada in line with the majority of other U.S. states that restrict phones behind the wheel. It makes exceptions for people talking on their phone with a hands-free device.

A fine and penalty structure kicks in Jan. 1, 2012, but police officers will start giving warnings to drivers starting in October.

Violating the law is a misdemeanor and subject to a $50 fine for the first offense, while a person convicted of a third or subsequent offense within seven years will have their driver's license suspended for six months.

Sandoval approved another measure allowing food service in adults-only bars, or within family restaurants if the smoking area is fully, physically enclosed.

A 2006 voter-approved ban on indoor smoking had prohibited bars that allow smoking to serve food.

Proponents say lifting the ban helps taverns hurting financially because of the economic downturn, while opponents say it goes against the will of the voters.

Nevada is also moving forward with a threat to withdraw from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency after making an environmental protection compact with neighboring California in 1969.

Opponents complain that the agency is meddlesome and overly bureaucratic.

Sandoval signed a bill that lays out a series of conditions the agency has to meet to keep the Nevada from walking away, such as updating its decades-old regional development plan by 2015. Failure to do so would give Nevada an out, unless the governor decides to extend the partnership through 2017.

The bill also requires a shift in the voting structure to give Nevada a greater say in the area.

The governor also exercised his veto muscle by killing a bill that he said makes consumers pay for infrastructure to transmit energy to other states, and offers no promise consumers will share in the spoils if the project succeeds.

"Those costs would not only be substantial, but they would reflect an unacceptable outcome: Nevada ratepayers forced to finance the transmission of renewable energy to out of state consumers without the opportunity to comment beforehand," Sandoval wrote, calling the measure an "unnecessary and unfair burden."

He also vetoed a bill that automatically restores voting rights to ex-felons. Existing law requires people who served time for certain severe felonies to petition the court for those rights.

"The right to vote is a privilege that should not lightly be restored to those few individuals who commit the most egregious crimes in our society," the governor wrote.

Other vetoes included a bill changing a dispute resolution process for people disgruntled with their homeowners association. He said saying it further complicates a confusing process and could deter people from filing complaints.

Sandoval blocked a bill setting up nine legislative committees to meet between biannual sessions, saying it brings Nevada's part-time Legislature precipitously close to a full-time body.

He shunned a bill creating a legislative subcommittee to oversee implementation of federal health care reform, and he said no to a bill that would have required hospitals to shoulder more costs for out-of-network emergency room patients.

A laundry list of other bills won his signature, including a budget-saving new law extending $620 million in taxes that would have expired this month.

It puts a two-year extension on four separate taxes scheduled to expire at the end of June, and closes most of a budget hole created by a Nevada Supreme Court ruling that the state couldn't siphon funds from local governments.

Sandoval and GOP state lawmakers spent most of the legislative session opposing new taxes and planning to let temporary taxes expire. His budget proposal originally tapped $656 million in local government money.

He changed course on the tax sunsets after five days of intense budget negotiations following the Supreme Court ruling.

One of the four "sunset taxes" is the modified business tax. Part of the final deal between Democrats and Republicans is ending that payroll tax for smaller businesses - a move that will ease the burden on 70 percent of Nevada firms.

Another measure at the center of the bipartisan budget got his signature - local governments and their employee unions must now set terms for reopening multi-year collective bargaining agreements in financial emergencies.

The law gives local governments more flexibility to reduce pay and benefits and avert layoffs during budget shortfalls.

Other new laws approved Friday include a measure allowing the City of Reno to approve a surcharge on Aces baseball tickets and concessions, and Democratic Assemblywoman Debbie Smith's School Works measure allowing districts to dip further into the debt reserve accounts they keep to pay off construction bond debt.

Debt reserve money would be used to kick-start more construction projects on aging schools.

Sandoval also signed a law authorizing a privately funded toll road project around Boulder City and another clearing hurdles for the City of Laughlin to incorporate.

About 1,100 bills were drafted for the 2011 session, and about half made it to the governor's desk.