Governor Joe Lombardo convened a special session Tuesday night and lawmakers got the job done.
In a press release Tuesday afternoon, the Governor called for the special session to start at 8:00 pm and end at 11:59 Tuesday night.
Constitutional experts have confirmed with KTVN that a Nevada governor cannot prescribe an ending for a special session under 20 days, so Lombardo's call was more a message than a mandate.
Lombardo called legislators to work on just one bill Tuesday, Assembly Bill 1 the Capital Improvement Program - a major budget bill.
On the final day of the regular session on Monday, the CIP budget bill passed in the Assembly but failed to get the needed two-thirds vote in the Senate before the midnight deadline.
But, the tides were turned with one vote during Tuesday's special session.
Republican Senator Scott Hammond (R-Las Vegas) was the sole Republican in the Senate to vote yes on Tuesday night, but that was all it needed, to get a two-thirds pass in the Senate.
Three Republicans joined Democrats in passing it on the Assembly side, Tuesday night.
We asked Hammond why he changed his vote for the special session.
"Because the Governor called us into a Special Session and said we're ready to move on. We're ready to get things done. We believe that we achieved what we needed to out of the Special Session and it's time to move on, and so that's what I did. I went in there and voted for something that creates a lot of jobs, puts a lot of money into projects that put a lot of people to work so I'm ready to do that," said Senator Hammond.
One of the main holdups was charter schools.
Late Monday night during the regular session, Senate Minority Leader Heidi Seevers Gansert made a last minute amendment to the CIP bill to include a $32 million allocation that would give charter school teacher's equal pay raises with public school teachers.
Democrats were not willing to hold up the CIP budget for charter school teacher pay equity.
We asked Hammond if he had any reservations for changing his vote and not fighting for pay raises for charter school teachers through the vehicle of the CIP budget.
"I always supported charter schools, I've supported schools of choice in the past and will continue to do so and they know that. I've championed them, and we're not going to stop. One of the things that you heard that Senator say is the we, and I'm going to include myself in that group, we're going to look for ways to put money into charters as well as others schools of choice, so that's fight is not over with, it's just not a part of the fight tonight," said Hammond.
One of the other main contention points in the CIP budget is the proposal to pour more than $100 million into renovating three buildings to essentially construct a second Nevada State Capitol Complex in Las Vegas.
With the CIP's passage during the Tuesday night special session, that project will now go forward.
Sources have confirmed that there will be a second special session regarding the tax deal for the proposed Oakland A's Baseball Stadium in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Lombardo has put a lot of political capitol in seeing A's stadium project through, while some democrats have said it's a non-starter.
