In today’s edition of the Behind the Bar newsletter: 

• Is a room cleaning mandate dead on arrival?
• Dynamics between the Legislature and the governor’s office
• Senator proposes reining in AI

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From the Capital Bureau Chief:

Our recap of Gov. Joe Lombardo’s interview at Tuesday’s IndyTalks covers a lot of ground, but I wanted to highlight a couple of nuggets that didn’t make it into the story (as well as details from our interview Wednesday with Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas)).

• On a mandatory daily room cleaning proposal returning to the Legislature:
  • Lombardo didn’t seem particularly open to the bill sponsored by a fellow Republican, describing it as a “COVID-era issue.” 
  • At its face, he said he doesn’t buy that it will address illegal drug sales, gun trafficking and human trafficking. 
  • “It’s very difficult for that data to be aggregated and believable. Unless somebody convinces me the accuracy of those nuances, I can't be supportive of it,” Lombardo said.
  • Yeager said the Legislature thoroughly vetted the issue in 2023, when the mandate was repealed: “I don't know that anything in my mind has changed from the last legislative session, but I'm always open-minded.”
• There’s still hope for expanded film tax credits. 
  • The governor said he did not support the proposed 2023 expansion, calling it “too much of an encumbrance onto the general fund,” pointing to the amount of time the credits would be in place and the cost of the proposal. 
  • As competing proposals from lawmakers and major film studios play out, “I’ll let the Legislature fetter it out, and then I’ll come to terms with the actual idea,” Lombardo said, noting that it could be problematic for the budget, but he’s not yet a yes or no.
• Issues with Lombardo’s budget are still ongoing. 
  • Yeager said the budget errors have caused double or triple the work for legislative fiscal staff, and lawmakers are still addressing problems in hearings. 
  • “It is going to be a tremendous amount of work for us to get this budget into the shape it needs to be,” he said. “We'll be here as long as we have to and as late as we have to do it. But it really has put us behind.”

Because of the upcoming holiday, this newsletter will arrive on Wednesday and Friday of next week. As always, please send us your questions and suggestions. You can reach me at [email protected].

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Legislative dynamics after Lombardo’s IndyTalks

Lombardo sat down with The Boss on Tuesday — for an in-depth look at our takeaways, check out this story.

But for all you legislative nerds out there (not derogatory), we wanted to analyze what his remarks might mean for legislative dynamics this session, especially after we talked to the speaker after the event.

Communication with Dems not where it should be?

• Lombardo said the “lack of” communication was the main lesson he learned from the 2023 session — and that there’s still minimal communication between his office and Democratic leaders.
  • Yeager said in an interview that legislative fiscal staff have communicated with the governor’s fiscal team. He expects more communication to occur as Lombardo’s bills come before the Legislature.
    • Context: The 2023 session culminated with deep tensions between Lombardo and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas), who blamed him for not upholding his end of a handshake deal to pass a final budget bill, forcing the Legislature into a special session. 
• Lombardo criticized Democrats frequently during Tuesday’s event, particularly regarding their school choice opposition.
  • "The ability to just say, 'No, we don't support it’ and not justify their lack of support ... it's malpractice,” he said regarding school choice.
  • Yeager pushed back, pointing to Democrats’ support of public education options such as charter schools.
    • “Our heartburn was using public money for private schools,” Yeager said.

Veto disputes

• Lombardo said Tuesday that some of his 2023 vetoed bills related to housing could be passed with changes.
  • But he called out Assembly Democrats for opening the door to override vetoes on four bills (two of which relate to housing) — a nearly impossible feat given that Democrats do not have the required two-thirds supermajority in either chamber.
    • “I think it’s political theater,” Lombardo said.
  • Yeager, meanwhile, characterized the four as “North Star bills” and wants them to serve as a reminder of why lawmakers are in the building. He said he doesn’t want to foreclose the possibility of trying to do something with them, but has no plans at this point to attempt a veto override.
    • Context: The bills can sit on the chief clerk’s desk as long as lawmakers leave them there. They cannot be amended, just voted on.
    • Yeager said lawmakers are bringing back ideas in those pieces of legislation as new bills.
  • And for the first time on Tuesday, Lombardo said that those housing bills could have passed if he had a line-item veto to eliminate specific provisions.
    • Reality check: A Democrat-controlled Legislature would never allow a GOP governor to have a line-item veto — Yeager confirmed that doing so would diminish the part-time Legislature’s already limited power.

Housing fight 

• Hours before Lombardo’s interview, the governor called on legislative Democrats to pass a resolution urging the federal government to release more federal land for housing.
  • Lombardo said in the letter that he was “committed to working across party lines with you and your colleagues to bring about meaningful change in our state.”
• In response, Assembly Majority Leader Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas) told The Indy that Democrats are already working to call on the release of federal land — and that “we can address many of the urgent needs of our community right now by taking action on potential veto overrides that are on the chief clerk’s desk."
  • Context: Assembly Minority Leader Greg Hafen (R-Pahrump) said Tuesday that Republicans will not override the vetoes.

— Eric Neugeboren and Tabitha Mueller

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What we’re reading and writing

Many Nevada candidates are fined over transparency on campaign funds. Few pay in full. by Eric Neugeboren

The secretary of state’s office is eyeing reforms to strike a “happy medium.”

Indy Explains: Can the Nevada Legislature actually help reduce egg prices? by Eric Neugeboren

Officials hope fast-tracked legislation will increase the state’s egg supply, but they cautioned that it isn’t a “silver bullet” to decrease costs.

Freshman Orientation: Researcher-turned-electrician Venise Karris heads to Carson by Eric Neugeboren

Karris worked in the electrical field for 27 years and has served as a union steward.

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Bill Spotlight: SB199 seeks to rein in AI

SB199, a bill sponsored by Sen. Dina Neal (D-North Las Vegas) to rein in artificial intelligence (AI), was introduced on the Senate floor on Tuesday. 

Here’s what it would do:

• The bill would mandate the registration of any company that sells or allows others to use an AI system.
• It would also prohibit police officers from using AI to generate an investigative or police report, teachers from developing lesson plans with AI and prohibit landlords from establishing rent prices using an AI system based on nonpublic data.
• The bill would also require the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) to track the number of Nevada jobs lost because of AI.
  • “When you start to replace human beings, I think we should take note and have a report, because ultimately that affects someone's paycheck at the end of the day,” Neal said in an interview.
• Context: Some state agencies use AI; DETR uses it to speed up unemployment appeals. In November, the state’s Office of the Chief Information Officer released policies on the ethical use of AI in state government, but Neal said the current regulation of AI in Nevada is “limited.”

— Eric Neugeboren

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 Keeping Tabs

📃Bill introduced to establish “Indigenous Peoples Day” — Assm. Shea Backus (D-Las Vegas) introduced AB144 to designate the second Monday in October as “Indigenous Peoples Day,” moving the observance from Aug. 9. In a hearing on Tuesday, Assm. Richard DeLong (R-Reno) pointed out that state law requires there to be no overlapping holidays and it would cause “confusion.” Some Nevadans who are Italian opposed the bill because the holiday falls on Columbus Day, but Backus said it’s about “placing Indigenous voices at the forefront of decisions that shape the future of the state.” Read more from KUNR.

💸 Millennium Scholarship struggling to survive — Treasurer Zach Conine on Tuesday that the Millenium Scholarship will need additional funding next legislative session or “dramatic adjustments” will need to be made on who receives funding in order for the resource to survive. The merit scholarship for Nevada high school students began in 1999 and was funded through settlements with tobacco companies. Conine said fewer Nevadans smoke and more Nevadans are going to college which are “good things,” but bad in terms of funding the scholarship. 

🆘 Hundreds of CORE.NV help desk requests — Data provided to The Nevada Independent shows that about 530 help desk requests sent in January related to the rollout of the state’s new finance system, and about two-thirds of them had been completed. This is about half the number of help desk requests received in the first month of SMART21, the initial iteration of the project.

👶 Details on family leave bill — Assm. Selena La Rue Hatch’s (D-Reno) proposal to require Nevada employers offer paid family and medical leave includes provisions that provide leave to victims of sexual assault, stalking or domestic violence and military-related leave, such as caring for the child of a deployed person, she told The Indy.

• Context: The Legislature in 2023 passed AB376, which would provide state employees with eight weeks of paid family leave. La Rue Hatch called her proposal an “expansion” of that legislation into the private sector.
• Read more in the Nevada Current.

— Lizzie Ramirez and Eric Neugeboren

Looking Ahead

• Monday, Feb. 17 — Presidents Day (the only meetings on the schedule are a joint finance committee and an Assembly health and human services committee)

Days until: 

• Last day for bill introductions: 40

• First house passage deadline: 69
• Sine die: 110

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And to ease you into the weekend, a few social media posts that caught our eye: 

• Instagram: In: donuts AND Polaroids
• X: Also in: egg puns
• X: Also in: policy polls (with very positive framing) before a big interview.

We’ll see you next week.

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