Nevada / State / 2017 Regular Session

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 482.0962 (added to NRS by 2017) Defined a qualifying service-connected disability additively rather than by the VA combined rating

Needs reviewEnactedScope changed

Signed 2017-05-29

Added NRS 482.0962, which defines "qualifying service-connected disability" for licence plate purposes as a service-connected disability rated at 100 percent; more than one service-connected disability "the combined ratings of which add up to at least 100 percent"; or a service-connected disability of any rating that constitutes or includes a permanent disability qualifying the person for a special plate under NRS 482.384, the walking disability section. The second limb is arithmetic addition, which the VA combined rating formula never performs because it applies each successive disability to the remaining unimpaired portion of the person. The third limb dispenses with percentages altogether. Tracked because the same drafting idiom appears in NRS 361.091, subsection 7 for the property tax exemption, which bases the exemption on "the total of those combined percentages, not to exceed 100 percent", and the two provisions together suggest a deliberate Nevada approach rather than a drafting slip. A veteran whose VA letter shows a combined rating below the threshold may still qualify once the separate percentages are added, and neither the Department of Motor Vehicles nor any county assessor publishes guidance resolving the point against NRS 417.0187, which deems the disability to be as the Federal Government determined it.