Opinion ID: 2460291
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Heading: History leading to the adoption of Nevada Constitution Article 4, Sections 20 and 21

Text: During Nevada's Constitutional Convention in 1864, the delegates, in structuring Article 4, Section 20 for adoption into the Nevada Constitution, used as a guide Indiana's constitutional provisions prohibiting special legislation. See Debates & Proceedings of the Nevada State Constitutional Convention of 1864, at 466, (Andrew J. Marsh off. rep. 1866); Hess v. Pegg, 7 Nev. 23 (1871) (noting that the language in Nevada's constitutional provisions proscribing local and special legislation was borrowed from the constitution of Indiana); State of Nevada v. Irwin, 5 Nev. Ill, 120 (1869) (pointing out that Article 4, Section 22 of the Indiana Constitution is verbatim with that of Nevada Constitution Article 4, Section 20, except that Indiana makes more exceptions to special legislation). The Nevada constitutional framers' purpose in adopting mandates proscribing local and special legislation was to remedy an evil into which it was supposed the territorial legislature had fallen in the practice of passing local and special laws for the benefit of individuals instead of enacting laws of a general nature for the benefit of the public welfare. Evans v. Job, 8 Nev. 322, 333 (1873). The framers of the Indiana Constitution had similar concerns with local and special legislation, deeming the practice of legislators agreeing to vote for the local bills of other legislators in return for comparable cooperation for passing their own local bills a growing evil. See Municipal City of South Bend v. Kimsey, 781 N.E.2d 683, 686 (Ind. 2003). The problem with such lawmaking is that when a law affects only one small area of the state, voters in most areas will be ignorant of and indifferent to it. Id. Likewise, early in Nevada's jurisprudence, this court explained that the purpose behind requiring statutes to be general in nature is that when a statute affects the entire state, it is more likely to have been adequately considered by all members of the Legislature, whereas a localized statute is not apt to be considered seriously by those who are not affected by it. Town of Pahrump v. Nye County, 105 Nev. 227, 773 P.2d 1224 (1989); see also Colman v. Utah State Land Bd., 795 P.2d 622, 636 (Utah 1990) (providing that `[a] law is general when it applies equally to all persons embraced in a class founded upon some natural, intrinsic, or constitutional distinction. It is special legislation if it confers particular privileges or imposes peculiar disabilities, or burdensome conditions in the exercise of a common right; upon a class of persons arbitrarily selected, from the general body of those who stand in precisely the same relation to the subject of the law' (quoting Utah Farm Bur. Ins. Co. v. Utah Ins. Guar. Ass'n, 564 P.2d 751, 754 (Utah 1977))). At their core, local and special law proscriptions reflect a concern for equal treatment under the law, Robert F. Williams, Equality Guarantees in State Constitutional Law, 63 Tex. L.Rev. 1195, 1209 (1985), and seek to fix inequities in the areas of economics and social welfare. See Donald Marritz, Making Equality Matter (Again): The Prohibition Against Special Laws in the Pennsylvania Constitution, 3 Widener J. Pub.L. 161, 184-85 (1993) (explaining the origins of Pennsylvania's constitutional prohibition against special laws). Although the Nevada Constitution expresses a preference for generally applicable laws, local or special laws are not ipso facto unconstitutional. Nev. Const. art. 4, §§ 20, 21; see W.R. Co. v. City of Reno, 63 Nev. 330, 352-53, 172 P.2d 158, 169 (1946). A local or special law may be upheld so long as (1) it does not come within any of the cases enumerated in Nevada Constitution Article 4, Section 20; and (2) a general law could not have been made applicable. Nev. Const. art. 4, § 21; see Anthony v. State of Nevada, 94 Nev. 338, 580 P.2d 939 (1978); Cauble v. Beemer, 64 Nev. 77, 96, 177 P.2d 677, 686 (1947); Conservation District v. Beemer, 56 Nev. 104, 45 P.2d 779 (1935). For the reasons explained below, A.B. 6, section 18 fails on both counts.
The CWC and The M Resort argue that because A.B. 6, section 18 applies in only a single Nevada county, and only to users of the municipal or county sewer systems in that county, it is a local law, and because it applies specifically and directly to a single entity in the state to the exclusion of all others similarly situated, it is a special law. The CWC also points out that the assembly bill's text admits that it is being used in lieu of a general law. The State responds that even though, on its face, A.B. 6, section 18 operates selectively in a few political subdivisions and in only a limited geographical area, it is not a local or special law because it advances supervening statewide budget concerns that transcend purely local interests. The State also urges this court to disregard the legislative admission that section 18 is being used in lieu of a general law. A law is local if it operates over a particular locality instead of over the whole territory of the State. Damus v. County of Clark, 93 Nev. 512, 516, 569 P.2d 933, 935 (1977) (citing State of Nevada v. Irwin, 5 Nev. Ill, 121 (1869)). A law is special if it pertain[s] to a part of a class as opposed to all of a class. Id. (citing Irwin, 5 Nev. at 121); see State of Nevada v. Cal. M. Co., 15 Nev. 234, 249 (1880) (describing a special law as one that imposes special burdens, or confers peculiar privileges upon one or more persons in no wise distinguished [way] from others of the same category). On the other hand, a general law is one that is applied uniformly. Nev. Const. art. 4, § 21; see Black's Law Dictionary 963 (9th ed. 2009) (defining a general law as one that is neither local nor confined in application to particular persons). In drafting A.B. 6, section 18, the Legislature found and declared that [a] general law cannot be made applicable to the provisions of this section because of special circumstances. A.B. 6, § 18(1)(c), 26th Spec. Sess. (Nev. 2010). The State acknowledges that when legislative findings are expressly included within a statute, those findings should be accorded great weight in interpreting the statute, but it points out that such findings are not binding and this court may, nevertheless, properly conclude that section 18 is a general law despite the Legislature's declaration to the contrary. McLaughlin v. L.V.H.A., 68 Nev. 84, 93, 227 P.2d 206, 210 (1951); Dunn v. Tax Commission, 67 Nev. 173, 184, 216 P.2d 985, 991 (1950). The Legislature's express finding and declaration that section 18 is not a general law, however, is consistent with the bill section's text, which, as the district court found, is directed specifically at the CWC and funds collected from wastewater treatment users within specified areas of Clark County. The law applies only to the CWC. The State argues that a law need not be operative in every part of the state to be general, but the determination of whether a law is local or special is based on how it is applied, not on how it actually operates. See County of Clark v. City of Las Vegas, 97 Nev. 260, 628 P.2d 1120 (1981) (noting that a statute with a population classification is not necessarily contrary to Article 4, Sections 20 and 21, because if the classification applies prospectively to all counties that could come within its population class, it is neither local nor special). Although the State asserts that the law is general because it advances supervening statewide concerns that transcend local interests, the case on which the State relies, State ex rel. List v. County of Douglas , does not support that proposition. 90 Nev. 272, 278, 524 P.2d 1271, 1275 (1974). Instead, in List, this court upheld a statute, enacted pursuant to a compact between Nevada and California that required the Nevada counties bordering Lake Tahoe to pay apportioned shares from their general funds to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, holding that the preservation of the region of the Lake Tahoe Basin as a natural resource for the enjoyment of all people sets it apart from the embrace of the commands of [Nevada Constitution Article 4, Sections 20 and 21]. Were we to rule otherwise, every interstate compact proposing to protect and preserve a common natural resource through an agency empowered to enact laws would be a nullity. We are wholly unable to attribute such an intention to those who wrote the prohibitions of [Article 4, Sections] 20 and 21. List, 90 Nev. at 279, 524 P.2d at 1275. Thus, the holding is based on the conclusion that the statute's purpose was to conserve a common natural resource for the enjoyment of all people that is not confined to a local area. Id. In so holding, the court in List agreed with the California Supreme Court, which, in addressing a challenge to the same compact under similar California constitutional provisions reasoned that [t]he water that the Agency is to purify cannot be confined within one county or state; . . . . The wildlife which the Agency should protect ranges freely from one local jurisdiction to another. . . . Only an agency transcending local boundaries can devise, adopt and put into operation solutions for the problems besetting the region as a whole. Indeed, the fact that the Compact is the product of the cooperative efforts and mutual agreement of two states is impressive proof that its subject matter and objectives are of regional rather than local concern. Id. (quoting People ex rel. Younger v. County of El Dorado, 5 Cal.3d 480, 96 Cal.Rptr. 553, 487 P.2d 1193, 1201 (1971)). List, unlike this case, addresses regional concerns and the preservation of a natural resource directly affected by inhabitants of that region. Here, a natural resource common to an interstate region is not at issue; instead, A.B. 6, section 18 is in the reverse and addresses statewide concerns through legislation that applies only to the CWC and funds collected from wastewater-treatment users within a certain locality. Since section 18 on its face advances statewide objectives, but burdens only the CWC by appropriating funds collected from certain residents and businesses within a particular locality for the state's general use, it is special (pertaining to only the CWC) and local (applying to only a particular locality). Damus, 93 Nev. at 516, 569 P.2d at 935; Cal. M. Co., 15 Nev. at 249.