Today’s Good News: Nevada Advances in Education, Energy,Clean Government
Progressive States Network’s legislative session roundup continues with a big thumbs-up to Nevada, which made serious reforms in education, clean energy, open government, and predatory lending this session.The state ponied up for education, increasing per-pupil spending by 13% over two years, funding after-school programs, providing incentive pay for teachers in at-risk schools and hard-to-fill subject areas, and creating 29 “empowerment schools”, where principals and teachers have a greater say in how the school is run.
On environment and energy issues, Nevada increased staffing at the state Division of Environmental Protection to regulate and monitor mercury emissions; created a net metering system that allows customers generating renewable energy to pump surplus power into the power grid and draw on credits later, while also banning the sale of low-efficiency light bulbs by 2015; and restricted the power of Homeowners’ Associations from restricting members from installing solar panels or other insulation measures to promote energy efficiency, among other things.
On clean government, they expanded open meeting rules to apply to the state Tax Commission to bring greater scrutiny of large corporate tax breaks, and required government bodies to make requested public records available within five business days. The state also restricted payday loans, banned balloon payments and extensions at the end of the loan term., and banned collection action against families of military personnel who are deployed in combat.
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