State legislators representing Nye County can say goodbye to plans to redraw the 5th Judicial District's boundaries, tighten residency requirements to run for office and keep the county's share of geothermal and oil royalties.

Those were some of the 269 bills that died last Saturday due to a standing rule in the Nevada Legislature requiring bills to be voted out of committee by that date, to meet the quick timetable of the 120-day session.

State Sen. Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, requested the bill to realign the 5th District to separate Mineral County from Nye and Esmeralda counties.

"I decided to just hold it in the committee because there were too many concerns from Mineral, Nye and Esmeralda. We just couldn't get those resolved before the date. So it wouldn't happen this year," McGinness said.

Part of the concerns involved the use of the Goforth Juvenile Justice Facility in Hawthorne for housing juvenile offenders from Nye County, he said.

"There were some concerns about the use of the juvenile facility in Hawthorne and whether that would continue. We couldn't get those things addressed adequately," McGinness said.

McGinness sponsored a bill allowing smaller counties to set up a county health district. That bill got gutted, but a study will be conducted on county health districts, he said.

McGinness did see a bill passed allowing people who retire from state jobs to receive benefits under the Public Employees Retirement System while serving as volunteer firefighters.

District 36 Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, had a much more ambitious agenda but less luck.

Goedhart was again rebuffed on a bill that would require high-level federal officials to sign off on any protest of water rights.

"I had everyone in line with it, the Department of Water Resources was approving, I had the Nevada Association of Counties. Gary Hollis spoke in favor of it from the Nye County Board of Commissioners. A lot of different groups were in support of it, even the Nevada Conservation League," Goedhart said.

But he blamed Assemblyman David Bobzien, D-Reno, whom he called "an extreme, extreme environmentalist" for appealing to Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, to prevent the bill from coming up to a vote in committee.

Goedhart cited a letter from a retiree who moved to Amargosa Valley in 2004 and had an application for five acre feet of water rights held up for four years for a pasture.

"My application was approved in November of 2008 but four years of my retirement has passed because of the actions of the park service. I will go through with my plans for the pasture but in the past four years I've gotten older, the costs of materials and labor have increased, and sadly, one of my horses passed away," Mary Mosley wrote.

Goedhart's publicized E-I-E-I-O bill, the Excellence in Education and Increased Opportunities bill, Assembly Joint Resolution 4, was also killed by the speaker, he said. Goedhart said that would give parents of school children educated outside the public school system 75 percent of the base guarantee.

Concerns were expressed by both parties over "opening up a Pandora's Box" by introducing a bill tightening residency requirements to run for office , Goedhart said, and it wasn't even drafted as a bill.

That was apparently aimed at preventing a situation similar to where Harley Kulkin moved a trailer into a Nye County Commission district and declared it his residence as he ran for office.

"There were so many arguments and counter-arguments about making the intent of the law protect people who are residents of the county but at the same time not precluding people from participation," Goedhart said.

Goedhart said there was a threat by legislators to use this bill to eliminate the one-year sunset provision.

Another bill, AB 354, allowing the Nevada Department of Agriculture to hire a resource specialist to guide applicants through rangeland and water issues, was killed in committee by Bobzien after a hearing, Goedhart said.

One bill that was passed by the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee, AB 355, raised the threshold by which small utility companies have to conduct expensive resource management plans and rate cases.

"This is a needed change. Otherwise these mandated reports are spread over such small utilities that cover few people, it puts a burden on these utilities," Goedhart said.

Local developer Tim Hafen, who owns Pahrump Utility Company, testified in favor of the bill. Goedhart said the the bill was supported by the Board of Consumer Protection. He also worked with the Public Utility Commission to secure passage.