Cost of special session hard to figure

The director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau says it's difficult to figure out exactly what the special session is costing Nevada.

"All I can say is that it's more than $13,545 a day," said Lorne Malkiewich. "That's the salaries and per diem of the legislators. The rest of it is a lot fuzzier."

He said the staff necessary for the special session would still be working anyway -- transcribing minutes of past meetings and doing the different things necessary to finalize and record all the actions taken by lawmakers over the past four months.

"This may extend their ultimate stay a couple of days," he said.

"When it's finished, we'll have a total amount for both regular and special sessions," he said. "But where you draw the line between the two is a judgment call."

"If you attribute the cost of all people here to the special session, that's misleading," he said. "But if you just count the salaries of legislators, that's too low."

He said the overall cost will probably be between $30,000 and $40,000 a day.

Legislators receive $130 per day in salary for the first 20 days of the special session. They receive $85 per day in per diem expense allowances for all days worked.