For the first time since the 2017 session, a Legislature led by a Democratic majority worked alongside a Republican governor to set policy for Nevadans. The Nevada Independent tracked key pieces of legislation and policy debates.
CANNABIS
The sale and regulation of cannabis in Nevada is changing under several proposals signed into law out of the session.
Gov. Joe Lombardo signed off on the Nevada Cannabis Association-backed SB195 that will end “time and effort billing,” or the Cannabis Compliance Board’s (CCB) hourly rates of up to $111 for state worker tasks such as reviewing security footage and conducting inspections. The bill would also cap noncompliance fees at $20,000 per violation and remove the ability to stack violations.
Sen. Dallas Harris (D-Las Vegas) introduced the lengthy SB277, or the “cannabis Christmas Tree bill,” which Lombardo signed, that increases daily purchase limits of THC products from 1 ounce to 2 1/2 ounces, removes the restrictions barring certain felons from serving on cannabis companies’ boards, being owners in the marketplace or cannabis agent cardholders, deems medical cannabis dispensaries to be adult-use facilities and drops the cost of licensing and renewal fees by more than $1,000 through $30,000 for certain establishments.
The cannabis Christmas tree bill also redefines “marijuana,” removing detached root balls from the usable THC classification and seeds. Additionally, SB277 authorizes county commissioners to launch educational programs that spread awareness about unlicensed cannabis businesses.
Lombardo signed off on SB225, which gives police departments the option to remove cannabis drug testing and confessions about cannabis use from the hiring process.
Nevada Cannabis Association and Sierra Cannabis Coalition supported legislation on behalf of cultivation licensees that revises the tax structure using California’s system as a model, through AB430. The policy lowered taxes for cannabis cultivators that are not vertically integrated, removing the requirement to pay 15 percent on the fair market value, now paying a 15 percent excise tax on the actual sale price.
The policy also requires the Cannabis Advisory Commission to study the potential effects that descheduling cannabis from Schedule 1, or the felony drug list, would have on local cannabis markets and report back by March 1, 2024. According to lobbyists, industry professionals do not all agree with descheduling, fearing that billion- dollar pharmaceutical corporations will take over.
Policies that died included AB253, sponsored by Assemblyman C.H. Miller (D-North Las Vegas), which would have created a “mobile cannabis concierge license” so small vendors could sell cannabis at events, and AB411, which would have allowed terminally ill patients to consume cannabis at certain medical facilities.
In an interview with The Nevada Independent Layke Martin, the executive director of Nevada Cannabis Association, said she is pleased with the outcome of the session. Still, lobbyists Scot Rutledge of Argentum Partners, who represents Green Life Productions, and Brett Scolari of Strategies 360, who represents cannabis companies including Thrive Cannabis Marketplace and Solarius, said they were left wanting more.
Rutledge said he would have liked to see SB402, which would have created a cannabis mentorship program, make it over the finish line, while Scolari said he has his sights set on uprooting illegal market activities, stating that during the interim until the next session he will work on policies that will do more to address “the elephant in the room” by seeking additional resources to fund large-scale investigations.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
During the 2019 and 2021 legislative sessions, the Democrat-controlled Legislature and Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak approved many major changes to the state’s criminal justice system, including reduced sentences for low-level crimes, increased access to diversion programs that offer alternatives to jail time and decriminalization of traffic tickets, as well as policing reforms such as banning chokeholds.
Though Gov. Joe Lombardo criticized Sisolak’s criminal justice policies as “soft on crime” on the campaign trail, he failed to roll back those policies, as Democratic majorities in the Legislature blocked or amended out the vast majority of his sweeping criminal justice reform bill (SB412).
Democratic legislative leaders and the Republican governor struck a deal on the measure by the final day of the session, passing through a completely overhauled version of the legislation that cut it down from 68 pages to just nine, with only five provisions remaining:
Prohibiting early discharge from probation for someone convicted of home invasion.
Creating an enhancement of one to six years of imprisonment for those convicted of a drug crime carried out with a firearm.
Changing the definition of strangulation in the context of domestic violence to align with the chokehold language from Nevada’s police brutality statute, defining it as intentionally impeding the flow of air or flow of blood to the brain.
Providing a $500,000 appropriation to the Department of Public Safety to invest into machines that can test the quantity of fentanyl in a drug mixture. Nevada’s crime labs are unable to determine how much of specific drugs, such as fentanyl, are contained within a drug mixture.
Clarifying the state’s misdemeanor trespassing law to indicate that when somebody's been warned to not trespass on a private property, that warning remains in effect for two years.
But even on the marquee criminal justice issue of addressing fentanyl overdose deaths — a top priority for Lombardo and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — a bill approved to increase penalties for fentanyl trafficking was watered down.
Lombardo’s crime bill initially proposed criminalizing possession of the drug in any amount as a category B felony, an increase from its current standing as a category E felony — meaning greater fines and more prison time. At the same time, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) and Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford proposed a package of two bills that would have set the floor for the crime of low-level trafficking at 4 grams of fentanyl — down significantly from previous trafficking threshold of 100 grams set in 2019.
But as criminal justice advocates and some Democratic lawmakers panned that proposal as too harsh and raised concerns that it could lead to imprisonment for low-level drug users, the Legislature ultimately passed out a proposal (SB35) defining low-level trafficking as possession of 28 to 42 grams of fentanyl and punishable by one to 10 years of imprisonment.
A trio of gun control bills also emerged as a flashpoint this session, with Lombardo’s first vetoes as governor rejecting Democrat-backed proposals to increase restrictions on firearm access — including prohibiting guns near election sites (AB354) and increasing the legal age to purchase semi-automatic rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21 years old (AB355).
Lombardo also vetoed a bill (AB160) that would have adopted procedures to automatically seal criminal records for anyone who is eligible. He said in his veto message the bill would “increase the likelihood that offenders would have their records sealed even if they shouldn’t be.”
Lawmakers also passed several bills meant to strengthen protections for children targeted by sex trafficking, including a measure (SB38) that would target school employees sexting with or luring students.
Lombardo also approved raises for state public safety employees through the state employee pay bill (AB522) above what he approved for other state employees, as public safety agencies, including the Department of Corrections, face high staffing vacancies and significantly lower pay than their local counterparts.
DISABILITIES
Nevada lawmakers advanced several bills this session aimed at protecting the rights of people with disabilities.
SB315, sponsored by Sen. Melanie Scheible (D-Las Vegas) and signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo in mid-June, establishes a bill of rights for people with disabilities and people who are 65 years or older receiving services paid for by Medicaid. It also creates a bill of rights for students with disabilities in Nevada’s K-12 education system. Proponents said the measure — which passed with bipartisan support out of both legislative chambers — would ensure people with disabilities have a say in navigating their lives.
Lombardo also signed a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Tracy Brown-May (D-Las Vegas), AB259, that phases out “subminimum wage” — the practice of paying disabled employees less than the minimum wage and sometimes as little as three to four cents an hour. During the 2019 legislative session, a similar measure died without a vote.
As the state’s minimum wage increases, proponents of the measure said allowing for subminimum wages is unfair and takes advantage of people with disabilities.
Another bill Lombardo signed, AB422, sponsored by Assemblywoman Michelle Gorelow (D-Las Vegas), requires the state’s Aging and Disability Services Division to create a pilot program to serve children diagnosed with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
AB242, a bill mandating every polling location contain at least two voting booths for elderly or disabled voters, was vetoed, and AB167, a bill requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a program for dementia care specialists in the state, died after it did not receive a vote in the Assembly.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
After a special session dedicated to considering a $380 million public financing package for a new Major League Baseball stadium in Las Vegas, Gov. Joe Lombardo’s approval of the package (SB1) brought Nevada one step closer to bringing the Oakland A’s to Southern Nevada.
But another major proposal aimed at vastly expanding the film industry in Southern Nevada through an unprecedented $190 million annual tax credit program failed to advance through the Legislature.
Both proposals emerged in the final weeks of the 120-day regular session — with the original baseball stadium bill (SB509) coming on behalf of Lombardo’s office after the team finally settled on a proposed stadium site.
The approved stadium legislation includes $180 million in transferable tax credits from the state spread out over at least five years, with the team able to sell those credits to other companies for cash, as well as an estimated $120 million in Clark County bonds, with the bonds and up to $120 million of the credits repaid through tax revenues generated by the stadium over the next 30 years.
Still, hurdles remain. Major League Baseball team owners need to approve the team’s relocation before the A’s can proceed. The team also needs to enter development and community benefits agreements with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority.
Though many sports economists criticized the deal, pointing to research showing publicly funded stadiums have little positive economic impact, bill proponents argued the stadium will boost state tax revenues over its lifetime.
The proposed film tax bill faltered, despite support from high-profile development groups Birtcher Development from Southern California and Howard Hughes Corp., the company behind the Summerlin master-planned community in Southern Nevada, that had pledged to build a pair of major studio campuses in Las Vegas. The bill, which would have expanded the state’s annual film tax credits from $15 million annually to up to $190 million for a period of 20 years, would have earmarked most credits for those two campuses.
The bill also had support from Sony Pictures, one of the largest film companies in the nation. After being discussed behind the scenes for more than two years, proponents want to bring the proposal back in a future legislative session.
Tesla’s planned multibillion-dollar expansion of its Nevada Gigafactory was central to economic development discussions in the early weeks of the session, with some Democratic lawmakers sparring with the governor’s office over a 2014 law that allowed Tesla to once again secure hundreds of millions of dollars in tax abatements.
Sen. Dina Neal (D-North Las Vegas) brought forward a bill (SB394) that would repeal the Governor’s Office of Economic Development’s ability to approve any tax abatement valued at more than $500,000, instead granting lawmakers greater power over large scale tax abatements such as those approved for Tesla. The bill failed to advance through the Assembly.
But Lombardo’s opposition to some economic development bills did not prevent their ultimate passage. Democratic lawmakers amended the provisions of two bills Lombardo previously vetoed into the stadium bill passed during the special session. That included SB299, requiring rail and monorail projects to comply with the state’s prevailing wage law, and SB429, requiring companies with more than 50 employees to offer paid family leave (at a rate of 55 percent of the employee’s pay for 12 weeks) in order to qualify for tax abatements.
ELECTIONS
Though Gov. Joe Lombardo sought to roll back the sweeping changes Democratic lawmakers and former Gov. Steve Sisolak made to the state’s election processes over the past four years, Democratic legislative leaders refused to budge.
Through one of his five major policy bills, SB405, Lombardo attempted to end universal mail-in voting, move up the deadline to submit ballots and require people to show identification to vote. Democratic legislative leaders declared the measure dead on arrival and did not grant it a single hearing.
Other Republican-backed election bills — including proposals to require voter ID (SB230) and move up the deadline for receiving mail ballots (AB230) — did not advance past a mid-April bill deadline. Democratic leaders in the Legislature said they would not accept changes that limit access to voting.
Lombardo ended up vetoing several Democrat-backed election bills, including a measure (SB133) that would have created a felony penalty for creating or submitting a false slate of presidential electors, with penalties of four to 10 years in prison and up to a $5,000 fine. The proposal was driven by a 2020 plot led by Nevada Republicans that saw six people falsely pledge the state’s electoral votes to President Donald Trump despite him losing the popular vote to President Joe Biden.
He also vetoed AB242, a bill that would have prohibited hand counting of ballots and mandated that all ballots be counted with a mechanical voting system — a response to Nye County election officials’ efforts last year to count votes by hand.
On the final day of the session, Democratic lawmakers pushed forward an overhauled version of SB60 that would have required state constitutional officers’ “inaugural committees” to report financial contributions and expenditures, similar to what is required for political action committees.
The Nevada Independent had previously reported that Lombardo created a nonprofit organization to run events and fundraise for his inaugural balls rather than register a political action committee (which requires more transparency of donors), as his predecessors in the governor’s office had done. Lombardo vetoed the measure and said the transparency requirements should be applied more broadly.
And despite a push from advocacy groups to expand voting access by ensuring election materials are available in more languages, Lombardo vetoed AB246, a bill that would have required Clark County make ballots available in Chinese. In Clark County, the number of Chinese speakers who have limited English proficiency falls just short of a federal threshold to require election materials in their language.
Lombardo did sign a bill from Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar’s office (SB406) to increase protections for election workers who have faced rising levels of threats and hostility since the 2020 election through greater penalties for harassing those workers. He also signed legislation originally requested by former Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske to establish a standard procedure manual for local election workers.
ENVIRONMENT
Water emerged as a top issue in the legislative session, with numerous proposals trying to address the Colorado River crisis and the overuse of groundwater from aquifers across Nevada.
Lawmakers approved — and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo signed — legislation billed by Las Vegas water officials as a way to cut back on water use amid a changing climate, municipal growth and uncertainty on the Colorado River. The legislation, AB220, made a number of changes to law, notably giving the Southern Nevada Water Authority the ability to curtail excessive water use — typically outdoor landscaping — if a deep shortage is declared on the Colorado River. The bill also creates a program to help residents transition away from septic tanks, and gives the state more authority to regulate groundwater.
Other bills sought to address issues in groundwater basins where there are more rights to use water than there is water to go around. In response to a state Supreme Court ruling last summer, SB113 clarifies statutory language to require that groundwater management plans receive support from priority water rights users. Lombardo signed the measure, which passed out of the Senate and Assembly unanimously.
Several water bills failed to advance to Lombardo’s desk. SB176 would have created a program to buy back and retire water rights, but lawmakers did not vote on it despite support from environmental groups.
AB387 would have required state officials to consider the “best available science” in making decisions about water. Though the bill passed out of the Assembly on a party-line vote, it did not receive a vote in the Senate.
Lawmakers also weighed several pieces of legislation dealing with climate change and the energy transition, including provisions curbing emissions from buildings and creating incentives for electric vehicles.
In the final weeks of the legislative session, Assemblyman Howard Watts (D-Las Vegas) introduced — and lawmakers and the governor passed — AB524, legislation that declared several energy policy directives for the state. They include emphasizing the importance of electric reliability and affordability, as well as the independence of regional energy markets, a thorough utility planning process and a commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The legislation, which drew hours of testimony, aimed to bring more rigor to utility planning while responding to calls for NV Energy to build more in-state generation, from solar farms to power plants. The legislation also responds to recent instances where NV Energy has amended power supply plans that are usually submitted every three years, a decision that critics have said is less transparent and does not give state utility regulators a holistic view of the utility’s planning options.
Several measures that sought to center environmental justice perspectives in state-level decision-making and permitting did not make it out of the Legislature.
Used in federal permitting, environmental justice describes the ways in which the cost of habitat loss, pollution and other environmental harms are felt by vulnerable communities or are disproportionately depending on ZIP codes and demographics. AB71, which did not get a vote, would have required the Division of Environmental Protection to conduct an interim study on environmental justice. AB312, sponsored by Assemblywoman Sarah Peters (D-Reno), would have created an Environmental Justice Advisory Council to advise policy and offer grants.
Lombardo did sign AB112, which will establish a fund for wildlife crossings, but another measure (AB221) that would have authorized the Nevada Department of Wildlife to manage insect species of conservation concern as “wildlife” did not receive a vote in the Assembly or Senate.
HEALTH CARE
Yet again, health care shaped up to be an important — and contentious — topic for legislators.
Amid a nationwide debate over abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) unveiled, and Gov. Joe Lombardo signed, SB131, a measure seeking to codify former Gov. Steve Sisolak’s executive order protecting out-of-state abortion seekers in Nevada and those providing reproductive care, regardless of other state policies.
The legislation passed out of the Assembly on a party-line vote with Republicans opposed and passed out of the Senate on a 15-6 vote, with Sens. Heidi Seevers Gansert (R-Reno) and Carrie Buck (R-Henderson) joining Democrats in support.
Lombardo’s signature on the bill marks the first significant stance he has taken on abortion access in office, after his position on abortion shifted throughout the election cycle.
Lawmakers also voted along party lines to pass SJR7, which would enshrine abortion protections in the Nevada Constitution. The measure must be passed by lawmakers again in 2025 before it could go before voters in the 2026 general election.
As the state moves to shift Medicaid services to a statewide managed care model, the Legislature approved $3.8 million (including $1.9 million from the general fund) over the next two years to prepare for the implementation of the managed care organization program starting this summer. The program is expected to go live by January 2026.
Lawmakers also approved Lombardo’s proposed budget to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates under Medicaid’s fee-for-service plan for physicians, dentists and nursing homes, services to people with disabilities and certified behavioral health centers.
At the same time, lawmakers grappled with a lack of state-supported services for child mental health issues that have been described as a “crisis” — underscored by a federal investigation last year revealing that the state’s lack of adequate treatment and services to children and youth with behavioral health disabilities likely violated federal law.
But under a little-noticed bill (SB435) the governor signed in June allowing private hospitals to implement an existing “provider tax,” state health officials are hoping to leverage up to $30 million in new state funds to address a lack of youth behavioral health resources.
The bill builds upon an existing framework that grants private hospitals the ability to vote for a state-assessed “provider tax” of no more than 6 percent, earmarked as supplemental Medicaid payments as part of a federal dollar-matching program.
To attract and retain medical providers working in rural and underserved communities, Lombardo signed AB45, a bill sponsored by the state treasurer’s office that creates a student loan repayment program for health care providers working in those communities.
Not all health care related bills were successful.
Lawmakers considered but did not advance AB108, a bill that would have allowed Nevada to join the multistate Nurse Licensure Compact as part of an effort to address the state’s provider shortage. Though health care industry leaders lauded the bill for attempting to address the state’s nursing shortage, labor unions said it would undercut the state’s existing workforce. The bill did not advance out of its first committee.
Assemblywoman Venicia Considine (D-Las Vegas) led the charge on AB250, a bill that would have made it so the Medicare-negotiated price of a prescription drug would be the set price of that drug for the rest of the state regardless of insurance coverage.
After passing along largely party-line votes with Republicans in opposition, Lombardo vetoed the bill, saying it “would set arbitrary price caps in Nevada based on federal decisions with no review or consideration from state stakeholders.” He argued that “caps could restrict patients’ access to medicines and result in less innovative treatments for patients.”
The governor also vetoed SB239, a bill that would legalize medical aid in dying, which passed out of the Senate in a narrow 11-10 vote and out of the Assembly on a 23-19 vote — the furthest medical-aid-in-dying legislation has made it in Nevada. In vetoing the bill, Lombardo became the first governor nationwide to veto a medical-aid-in-dying bill.
In his veto message, Lombardo said he was “not comfortable supporting this bill” in light of “recent progress in science and medicine and the fact that only a small number of states and jurisdictions allow for similar end-of-life protocols.”
Though Lombardo opposed the state-run public health insurance option created by state lawmakers in 2021 and cut its funding out of the state budget, members of a legislative budget committee reversed those cuts and boosted funding for the program’s implementation.
K-12 EDUCATION
The 2023 legislative session was a big one for K-12 education.
Not only did lawmakers approve a historic, $2 billion increase in K-12 spending – a jump of about 26 percent from the previous budget cycle that will increase the base per-pupil amount from $7,074 in fiscal year 2023 to $9,023 by fiscal year 2025 – but they also passed significant legislation around student discipline, teacher pay and more.
AB285 and AB330, introduced by Assemblywoman Angie Taylor (D-Reno) and Gov. Joe Lombardo, respectively, would roll back some provisions in AB168, a so-called restorative justice bill from 2019, including making it easier for school officials to suspend or expel students who are younger than 11, which was the age limit that was established in 2019.
Under the bills, students age 6 and older could be suspended for committing battery against a school employee; students age 8 and older can also be expelled and permanently expelled for the same offense. While the original policy sought to curb the school-to-prison pipeline, a push to roll back the 2019 law came after high-profile school violence incidents, and the issue was big on the campaign trail.
Lawmakers also approved Lombardo’s flagship K-12 education bill, AB400, which includes provisions that open the door for cities and counties to sponsor charter schools, appropriate transportation funding for charter schools and reinstates a policy that retains third grade students who aren’t reading at grade level.
However, other provisions that would have vastly increased funding and eligibility for the Opportunity Scholarship school choice program, created open zoning (a policy that would allow students to more easily attend schools outside their assigned zone) and created the Office of School Choice were stripped out of the final version of the bill. Without this increase, funding for Opportunity Scholarships will remain flat.
A separate bill that would have allocated $58 million toward Education Saving Accounts, a school voucher-style program that provides public funds for students to attend private schools, was never brought up for discussion.
Other bills that were passed this session include AB73, which allows students to wear regalia of cultural or religious significance to graduation; AB519, which will appropriate $64.5 million to the Elko County School District to construct a new school in Owyhee and also creates a way for rural school districts to work with their counties to raise money for capital projects; and SB292, which will make easier to fire principals during their first three years in the role.
SB231 creates a $250 million matching fund to help school districts pay for raises for teachers and support staff. The bill excludes charter school teachers.
AB175 will add four nonvoting members to the Clark County School Board, which will bring its membership up to 11 trustees. Those new members will be appointed by the Clark County Commission and the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson.
AB65 requires students to reach the age of 5 on or before Aug. 1 in order to enroll for kindergarten. Prior to the bill, students had until the first day of school to turn 5.
Among the bills vetoed by Lombardo were AB319, which would have continued funding for universal free school breakfast and lunch through the 2024-25 school year by allocating $43 million to the State Department of Agriculture; SB340, which would have required all Nevada school districts to submit plans for providing summer school options in 2023 and 2024; and AB282, which would have required school districts to provide a subsidy to help cover health insurance costs for certain long-term substitute teachers.
Bills that died before they could reach the governor’s desk include SB158, which would have required cameras in certain classrooms with students with special needs, and AB357, which would have provided sexual education to students unless their parent or guardian proactively opts them out.