The Nevada Legislature At Work

I recently had the opportunity to travel up to Carson City to participate in the Jewish Nevada Legislative Day where leaders from the Jewish community gathered to meet with legislators and share their thoughts and concerns about several bills making their way through the legislature. We focused on two bills, AB 111 and AB 264.

AB 111 proposed a law to ban an HOA or landlord from prohibiting a resident from putting up a Mezuzah. Unfortunately, this bill did not make it out of committee and died before it could be brought to the full assembly because the assembly leadership felt that there were not enough examples of this actually happening right now and therefore did not merit being heard.

AB 264 dealt with the CCSD absentee policy and proposed up to three excused absences for religious holidays so that they will not be counted against a student toward awards. This bill already passed unanimously in the assembly.

We also shared two other issues with our legislators. The first was a budget appropriation of $350,000 per biennium for a full-time position of Holocaust and Genocide Education Coordinator for the state to help implement the law passed in the last legislature, which requires Holocaust education to be taught in Nevada State schools. The second issue was another budget appropriation for five million dollars to be towards a state-funded security grant that non-profits could tap into similar to the Federal Homeland Security grants. This would help non-profits, especially synagogues, bolster the security of their properties as they have had their applications denied federal funding over the past many years. Last year, only two synagogues in the state received funding, and Midbar Kodesh Temple was one of them.

I look forward to keeping you up-to-date on these and other important issue facing the Jewish community.

Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Tecktiel