Nevada’s Special Legislative Begins to ‘Finish What Was The Legislature Left Unfinished’

In October, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo announced he would be convening a special session of the state legislature to “finish what the Legislature left unfinished.” The business left unfinished now includes 16 different bills that did not pass through the 2023 and 2025 session. Nevada’s legislature meets every odd year for 120 days per Nevada’s Constitution, with the Governor having the authority to call a special session. (see below)

“Nevadans deserve action now — not years from now — on legislation that implements critical public safety measures, expands health care access and supports good-paying jobs,” Lombardo said in the announcement. “By calling this special session, we are reaffirming our responsibility to act decisively and deliver meaningful results for the people of Nevada.”

“Gov. Lombardo has called us back to Carson City for a Special Session, but it’s important to remember one thing — the Legislature does not set the agenda for this Special Session,” Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) said in a statement. “Instead, the Governor dictates the issues we are to address through his proclamation. The Assembly is here to ensure the legislation presented to us does, in fact, improve the quality of life for all Nevadans.”

The Review-Journal reports:

Six bills from the 2025 regular legislative session and one from the 2023 session will be considered. They include:

■ Lombardo’s proposed criminal justice reform bill, Senate Bill 457, which proposes “revising provisions related to public safety, juvenile justice, pretrial release, and opioid use disorder.”

■ The proposed “Nevada Studio Infrastructure Jobs and Workforce Training Act,” which would expand the state’s film tax credit program and provide incentives for the construction of the Summerlin Studios project.

■ Senate Bill 450 from the 2023 session, which would provide support for the relocation efforts for the residents of Windsor Park in North Las Vegas.

■ Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro’s Senate Bill 434, which would create a health care grant program to address provider shortages.

■ Senate Bill 194, addressing insurance requirements for short-term vehicle leases.

■ Assembly Bill 404, revising laws governing the sale and regulation of alcoholic beverages.

■ Assembly Bill 600, which would clarify that sales made inside Legislative buildings go into the Legislative Fund and that every state entity must be part of one of the three branches of government. It also addresses property in Carson City that the Legislature may purchase.

Additionally, the announcement details other bill topics that the Legislature will consider bills about:

■ General assistance: creating the Silver State General Assistance Program within the Division of Welfare and Supportive Services. Senate Democrats said last week they would propose a state-funded solution to the disruption of food assistance benefits in the ongoing legal battle over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

■ School zone safety: increasing penalties and expanding local authority over school zone traffic enforcement.

■ Cybersecurity: establishing the security operations center and cybersecurity talent pipeline program within the office of the chief information officer.

■ Wage and hours: aligning Nevada labor standards with federal law.

■ Public officer privacy: expanding confidentiality protections for certain personal information and campaign-related expenses.

The proclamation also authorizes the Legislature to consider appropriations that would go toward:

■ Funding for indigent defense, rural judges and district attorneys.

■ A jail-based behavioral health program.

■ Wildland fire trucks for the Nevada Division of Forestry.

■ Investments in education, medical infrastructure and cybersecurity staffing.

Out of the gate, the “Nevada Studio Infrastructure Jobs and Workforce Training Act” (AB5) barely survived with a tie 21-21 procedural vote in the Assembly to for consideration, with Senator Selena La Rue Hatch (D-Reno) invoking a procedural Senate move with hopes to kill the bill. The bill has bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition related to an up-to $120 million in transferable tax credits offered to Hollywood Studios and independent film makers.who expand production into Las Vegas. Last February Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Entertainment and Howard Hughes Holdings collectively proposed developing “Summerlin Studios,” a 31-acre film production studio in Las Vegas. The transferability of tax credits allows for an unused portion of the available tax credits to be “sold.”

As The Globe reported, over 20 labor unions formed a PAC to influence the passage of the legislation.

“This special session gives Nevada a second chance to create over 19,000 construction jobs today and more than 17,000 permanent jobs tomorrow,” said Tommy White, Business Manager and Secretary-Treasurer, Laborers International Union of North America Local 872. “Our unions are united because Summerlin Studios isn’t only a construction project—it’s an economic engine that will deliver over $3 billion in annual impact and sustain thousands of working families for decades.”

“A study done by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development in May downgraded the estimated impact of a movie studio bill in the Nevada Legislature… The study on AB 238 downgraded the return on investment slightly from the studio’s estimate, finding that Nevada would only get back 52 cents of every dollar in tax credits. The return on investment calculation includes a net film tax credit of $1.425 billion over 15 years,” Channel 8 News Now reports.

A critic of the legislation, Republican state Senator Dr. Robin Titus (SD-17), recently told Nevada Newsmakers, “I’m more convinced even now that they (transferable tax credits) are not good for Nevada. I’ve done a lot of homework and tried to keep an open mind.”

“The governor really wants this to be a jobs bill,” she added. “And I certainly understand. We’ve lost 2,000-plus construction jobs in this last year or whatever time period it is. And so he wants this to be a jobs bill. But I want it to be a sustainable jobs bill, and there’s a difference there.

“I’m not against supporting and making Nevada a good economic state to have businesses want to move here. I certainly am for that,” Titus continued. “But there’s ways to do that,” she added. “We have something called an infrastructure bank that people can borrow money on. We could certainly give grants and loans and hold these folks accountable when they come. But just giving transferable tax credits to somebody, I mean, we only have to look at the Apex project in Southern Nevada to know what a disaster some of the stuff could be.”

Earlier this week, The Nevada GOP flipped its prior position against the Democratic legislation. In a released statement, Chairman Michael McDonald urged the bills passage, stating:

“This is a pivotal moment for Nevada. The Nevada Studio Infrastructure and Workforce Training Act is the second largest job bill in Nevada’s history, at a time we need it the most. This new industry will diversify our economy, deliver tens of thousands of good paying careers and a comprehensive education to job pipeline, which will ensure that Nevadans will be ready to work at the studios. These are NEVADA jobs. There are NO other projects on the horizon in Las Vegas right now. And in Las Vegas, we have always doubled down even when others would have paused. We completed City Center in the middle of the Great Recession. We completed Allegiant Stadium in the middle of COVID. Today, everyone would agree that all have been a boon to the destination. We have two globally-renowned studios ready to put stakes in the ground in our state. In the most recent election, both parties agree that voters reacted to a troubling economy. Our economy is more vulnerable than many others unless we invest in diversifying. With the number of immediate jobs this would create, the time for this is NOW.”