M.V. Town Hall Discussion Features Annie Black

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

Assemblywoman Annie Black made a visit to the Moapa Valley last week to speak, and to listen, at a town hall meeting held on Wednesday, Jan. 5 at the Old Logandale School.

The meeting was the first in a series of community discussions being organized by Moapa Town Advisory Board member Blake Stratton. About a dozen people attended the event.

“All we aim to do in these meetings is have a little bit of an open forum discussion,” said Stratton in introducing Black. “Annie is here so we can have an informal open conversation to see where she is at and her thoughts about being part of the state legislature.”

Black (R-Mesquite) was a freshman legislator in the 2021 session representing Assembly District 19 which included Mesquite, Overton and a portion of Henderson. But with the redistricting process, which took place in a special session last fall, District 19 has changed. It now includes the towns of Logandale and Moapa.

“The redistricting turned out good for Moapa Valley, I think,” Black said. “Because the previous representative for Logandale and Moapa was out in Pahrump, which is quite a bit of difference. So it makes sense.”

Even so, the redistricting process did not go very well for Republicans in general, Black said.
“The way that the district lines are drawn now, just looking at them by registration D vs. R, Republicans are automatically in the super-minority,” Black said. “But that is not to say that all hope is lost because it is expected to be a great year for Republicans. And I think we have a shot at turning over some of the seats.”

Just the day before the Logandale meeting, Black had announced that she would be running for the U.S. Congress District 4 seat currently held by Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Las Vegas). She acknowledged that it would be a challenge for a rural northeast Clark County resident to win a district which includes so much of North Las Vegas. But she expressed optimism that it would be possible, especially this year.

“I grew up in Las Vegas,” Black said. “I know the area well and my dad still has businesses in North Las Vegas. Yes, I’m going to have to spend a lot of time there in the campaign. But I am looking forward to it.”

Black said that she is anticipating being able to team up with key people in different communities and with groups. “I look forward to getting to know many different people and becoming part of different communities of people,” she said. “Because that is what you have to do when representing them all.”

Black went through a list of bills that she had presented during the last session. She admitted that, given the circumstances at the Legislature, none of these bills even came to a vote.
“None of my bills went anywhere which was not a surprise because we had a Democratic-controlled legislature,” Black said. “But they were very good bills that I spent a lot of time thinking about.”

Most of Black’s bills had to do with loosening restrictions and mandates on the public regarding the COVID pandemic.

The first bill she proposed was to limit the Governor’s emergency powers to “unilaterally shut down the state indefinitely,” Black said.

“Our current state of emergency that we are still under right now was declared on March 12, 2020,” Black said. “That was 664 days ago! This bill would have required a vote of the legislature to continue any emergency declaration.”

Another bill Black presented would have opened the Legislature up to the public. The capitol building had been shut down because of the pandemic, she said.

“If you were a legislator, you were basically sequestered to your office,” Black said. “Imagine trying to legislate, especially as a freshman, under those conditions.”

A third bill Black introduced would have revoked the state business license fee. This would not only give some economic assistance to small businesses, but it would also prevent the business license process being used as a club to force businesses to comply with state health mandates, Black said.

Another bill would have created a 48 hour period before voting on all bills to allow time for legislators to read and research what is in the bills.

Finally, Black said that she presented a bill that “would have put teeth into the ‘None of the Above’ option” on election ballots. This would require a special election to be held if the “None of the Above” category wins the election.
“Those were my priorities,” Black concluded. “That was what I worked on while up there.”

The meeting was open to questions from attendees. One of the questions inquired about how local residents could have more of an impact on the legislative process in Carson City.

“I know it is hard to participate in what is going on from here,” Black said. “It is just so far away, there is so much to follow and things move so fast. It almost takes a group of people who are passionate about something and decide to follow that issue through the process and advocate for it. You can really become part of the process that way and share perspectives with legislators that they might never have thought about.”

As the meeting concluded, Stratton reminded the group that he was planning other similar town hall meetings with other guest speakers on different topics.

Keep an eye on The Progress for future dates and times.