Senate Bill No. 123–Senator Titus

 

Joint Sponsor: Assemblyman Parks

 

CHAPTER..........

 

AN ACT relating to campaign practices; prohibiting public officers and employees from requesting or otherwise causing state and local governments to, under certain circumstances, make an expenditure to support or oppose a ballot question or a candidate; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN

SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

 

    Section 1.  Chapter 281 of NRS is hereby amended by adding

thereto a new section to read as follows:

    1.  Except as otherwise provided in subsections 4 and 5, a

public officer or employee shall not request or otherwise cause a

governmental entity to incur an expense or make an expenditure

to support or oppose:

    (a) A ballot question.

    (b) A candidate.

    2.  For the purposes of paragraph (b) of subsection 1, an

expense incurred or an expenditure made by a governmental

entity shall be considered an expense incurred or an expenditure

made in support of a candidate if:

    (a) The expense is incurred or the expenditure is made for the

creation or dissemination of a pamphlet, brochure, publication,

advertisement or television programming that prominently

features the activities of a current public officer of the

governmental entity who is a candidate for a state, local or federal

elective office; and

    (b) The pamphlet, brochure, publication, advertisement or

television programming described in paragraph (a) is created or

disseminated during the period specified in subsection 3.

    3.  The period during which the provisions of subsection 2

apply to a particular governmental entity begins when a current

public officer of that governmental entity files a declaration of

candidacy or acceptance of candidacy and ends on the date of the

general election, general city election or special election for the

office for which the current public officer of the governmental

entity is a candidate.

    4.  The provisions of this section do not prohibit the creation

or dissemination of, or the appearance of a candidate in or on, as

applicable, a pamphlet, brochure, publication, advertisement or

television programming that:

    (a) Is made available to the public on a regular basis and

merely describes the functions of:

        (1) The public office held by the public officer who is the

candidate; or

        (2) The governmental entity by which the public officer

who is the candidate is employed; or

    (b) Is created or disseminated in the course of carrying out a

duty of:

        (1) The public officer who is the candidate; or

        (2) The governmental entity by which the public officer

who is the candidate is employed.

    5.  The provisions of this section do not prohibit an expense or

an expenditure incurred to create or disseminate a television

program that provides a forum for discussion or debate regarding

a ballot question, if persons both in support of and in opposition to

the ballot question participate in the television program.

    6.  As used in this section:

    (a) “Governmental entity” means:

        (1) The government of this state;

        (2) An agency of the government of this state;

        (3) A political subdivision of this state; and

        (4) An agency of a political subdivision of this state.

    (b) “Pamphlet, brochure, publication, advertisement or

television programming” includes, without limitation, a

publication, a public service announcement and any programming

on a television station created to provide community access to

cable television. The term does not include:

        (1) A press release issued to the media by a governmental

entity; or

        (2) The official website of a governmental entity.

    (c) “Political subdivision” means a county, city or any other

local government as defined in NRS 354.474.

    Sec. 2. NRS 281.431 is hereby amended to read as follows:

    281.431  As used in NRS 281.411 to 281.581, inclusive, and

section 1 of this act, unless the context otherwise requires, the

words and terms defined in NRS 281.432 to 281.4375, inclusive,

have the meanings ascribed to them in those sections.

    Sec. 3. NRS 293.725 is hereby repealed.

 

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