The Governor’s Office for Economic Development (GOED) is investing in entrepreneurship this session with bills such as AB41, which would create the Nevada Innovation Account, and AB77, Assemblyman Steve Yeager’s (D-Las Vegas) proposal to create an Office of Entrepreneurship within GOED.

With fewer than four days until the Legislature’s 120-day session ends June 5, lawmakers are finalizing bills, amendments and making last-minute deals in an attempt to get their legislation and the state budget across the finish line.

Despite Lombardo’s threats to veto the state budget if his legislative priorities were not addressed, he signed three of the five major bills used to fund the state government through Thursday afternoon.

The bill (AB522) includes the first major pay boosts for state workers in years, including raises ranging from 10 percent to 13 percent in the upcoming fiscal year beginning in June, and 4 percent raises the following year.

The agreement follows days of heated negotiations after Lombardo threatened multiple times to veto the state’s budget bills as his legislative priorities remained stalled.

In the face of the governor’s veto threat, Democratic lawmakers quickly moved the five major bills used to implement the state budget through the Legislature, seeking to get a budget approved, a chief responsibility of the lawmaking body, just days before sine die.

In the face of Lombardo’s veto threat, Democratic lawmakers have swiftly advanced the budget implementation bills, even introducing them on Monday, nine days earlier than the anticipated introduction date of May 31.

Should Lombardo veto the state budget, the move could force an emergency special legislative session. 

"We are shocked and extremely disappointed by Gov. Lombardo’s vote against our agreement that seeks to raise critical funding for state police,” NPU President Dan Gordon said in a statement released Wednesday.

Over the past two years, Ford has announced settlement victories against major opioid companies totaling more than $391 million, with Tuesday’s announcement bringing that total to $543 million.

$808 million is set aside for 29 construction projects, with another $259 million budgeted for maintenance and the remainder spread across more than a dozen planning and other statewide projects.

She added that she did not believe the current language of the bill should “be the form that exits this building,” and asked to work with the committee on changes to the bill, such as increasing the proposed $500,000 threshold, which she described as “super low.”

The Nevada Independent filed a public records request for his calendar, which revealed in greater detail the many meetings the governor had with special interest groups, other elected officials and business representatives.

With the clock ticking to the end of the fiscal year in June, a state worker pay bill remains in legislative limbo — a stall that Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas), the bill’s sponsor, says has come because the governor's staff has indicated they are unable to implement it.

Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) and Senate Minority Leader Heidi Seevers Gansert (R-Reno) both sat down with The Indy this week to discuss end-of-session priorities and where things stand with just over a month left before sine die. 

Facing an unspecified “directed security threat,” Nevada officials have taken down the public-facing website for the state’s online timekeeping and payroll system and urged state employees to change their passwords and security information.

Just over half of Nevadans say they approve of Gov. Joe Lombardo’s job performance four months into his term — even as a fifth of Nevadans say they still haven’t made up their mind on the state’s new Republican governor. 

The state’s two primary revenue sources — sales and gaming tax collections — have boomed amid a period of high inflation and the state’s emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic, which hampered the gaming industry.

The shortfall would leave the state unable to fund compensation claims for crime victims, legislative fiscal staff told lawmakers, adding that it could even mean the state is unable to qualify for additional federal funding used to support victims.

Supporters of the bill emphasized that lifting a cap on state employee wages — set at 95 percent of the governor's annual salary, which is roughly $170,000 — would help attract workers.